He may have been campaigning in the Northwest Territories, but Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was asked about evidence that had come up at the Mike Duffy trial in Ottawa 4,586 kilometres away.

Email evidence shows about half a dozen staff and party officials were in the loop about who was going to pay the senator’s $90,000 bill for questionable expenses.

Until now, Harper had maintained that former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, was the only one who knew he was going to take care of it.

But the prime minister said Friday it was not only his understanding, but the understanding of the ” majority of staff ” that Duffy would be making the payment.

Harper also did not acknowledge that current chief of staff Ray Novak knew his then boss, Wright, would cover Duffy’s bill.

Campaigning in Toronto, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he has trouble believing the prime minister’s right hand man does not read his own emails. 

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc is calling on Harper to fire Novak and remove those within his inner circle who were ”intimately involved” in the plan to make the expenses problem go away.