Feeding At The Trough

 

Those who read this blog with any regularity likely know that I am not an ideologue. While I consider myself progressive, it does not mean that I am blind to the faults of either the Liberals or the NDP. And it is about a member of the latter that I post today.

The implications of a CBC story is that NDP Mp Nikki Ashton has been feeding at the trough.

An NDP MP who frequently joins parliamentary proceedings remotely from her riding billed the House of Commons for a trip she took to reportedly meet with "stakeholders" over the Christmas holidays in Quebec — travel that included bringing her husband and kids along at taxpayers' expense.

... on Dec. 21 of that year, Ashton flew from Thompson, Man. to Ottawa — five days after the House of Commons had already risen for its Christmas break.

Ashton's partner Bruce Moncur, a former NDP nomination candidate, and their two children also made the trip with the MP to the nation's capital.

Then, on Christmas Day, 2022, the family of four travelled to Quebec City. Ashton billed the Commons for some of the expenses they incurred along the way.

The trip cost taxpayers $17,641.12, including $13,619.90 for airfare and other transportation, $2,508.39 for accommodations and $1,512.83 for meals and other incidentals, according to Commons records.

The optics are not good. While I encourage you to watch the entire three-minute plus clip of her cringeworthy news conference here, I was able to find an abbreviated version to post. Her refusal to name who she met with in pursuit of her 'official duties' hardly passes the smell test.

Ashton would only say that it was "various people" who are "connected to the issue of French language, French culture preservation." She said she wanted to get feedback on an overhaul of the Official Languages Act from unnamed groups.

While it does not appear that Ashton broke any Parliamentary rules in claiming the expenses, her insensitivity to the taxpayer rankles. Franco Terrazzano, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, had this to say:

"If Ashton doesn't want Canadians to think that she billed taxpayers so she could take a vacation to Quebec over the holidays, then she better have a very good explanation, a very concrete explanation as to what value, if any, taxpayers actually got from this trip," Terrazzano told CBC News.

Terrazzano said MPs should think "about what their constituents would say" before taking big-ticket trips. He also said the Commons should consider tightening the rules on when MPs can be accompanied by their families on subsidized trips.

It can be legitimately argued that Ashton, by attending Parliament via Zoom, has saved taxpayers a substantial amount of money. However, it hardly seems ethical that a family trip with dubious benefits to the public should be considered a quid pro quo for that practice.