Keith Beardsley’s View From the Hill – 9 Questions Over Trudeau’s 10th Vacation JAN 8, 2017

CORNWALL ONTARIO – Canadians woke up in January and realized that they had to find a way to pay for all those Christmas presents bought on their credit cards. Others, especially seniors on fixed incomes, were struggling to figure out what items they would have to do without, because the cost of gas and hydro had just gone up yet again. This time the increase was to pay for Trudeau’s new carbon tax.

At the same time we also woke up to the fact that our Prime Minister had taken yet another vacation. This made for ten vacations in his first year in office- more time off than he would have had as a drama teacher. The struggling middle class that he pretends to want to help can only dream about that much vacation time.

Now most Canadians won’t begrudge a Prime Minister an occasional holiday providing they feel it is on the up and up. But his last one has a peculiar odor about it.

Canadians wonder about all of the secrecy. At first it was amusing, they could play “Where’s Waldo” and try and guess where Trudeau was holidaying. But then they found out and the questions haven’t stopped.

A vacation with a few close friends on a private, luxury island, hosted by a multi-millionaire (whose foundation receives funds from the Canadian government) raised a few eyebrows and quite a few unanswered questions.

For all of those Liberal/Trudeau apologists who think we should give him a break because he is new to the job, let me remind you that Prime Ministers and their staff are expected to measure up from day one. To those that say there was nothing wrong with him accepting a gift of hospitality on this private island, I will remind you that there are rules in place for that and looking back there was a lot of negative media coverage in February 2006 (shortly after the Conservatives won the election). The outcry then was not about the new Conservative Prime Minister taking a vacation; it was about a few MPS and staff being invited out for the night to watch a NHL Senators hockey game. PMO made every one of those individuals pay the full cost of their evening. Shouldn’t Trudeau being doing the same?

This brings us back to this last vacation. If I was still looking after Question Period I would be looking for answers from the Prime Minister for the following questions:

Name the “close friends” that were on this vacation with you.

Do any of them receive funds or do business with the Canadian government?

How did they get to the island? Were any of them flown there on Canadian government or military aircraft at taxpayers’ expense?

What was the size/cost of your protective detail compared to your last Caribbean vacation?

Were any of your “close friends” political staff, MPs or individuals who could discuss business with the host while giving you cover to say that you personally had no direct discussions.

Was there anyone with you who was involved with files for the Aga Khan’s Foundation?

Did you receive any briefing notes on any outstanding requests or decisions for funding for your host’s foundation? If so will you release them in their entirety, uncensored?

Will you reimburse the government for your trip?

Will your “close friends” do the same for any expense that they might have caused the government?

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

There is an expression “You can run but you can’t hide.”

Trudeau can run from coffee shop to coffee shop over the next few weeks, but he can’t hide from the questions or from disillusioned Canadians paying their Christmas bills and those of us just managing to get by pay cheque to pay cheque.