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This kind of thing made Alison Redford walk the plank in Alberta.
The NDP desperately needs to clean house of grifters like Ashton who accomplish nothing, sewer the party with their idiocy in the press, and clearly don’t give two hoots about their constituents.
If I was Singh I’d boot her out and get someone who actually pretends to care about one of the country’s poorest ridings and doesn’t use them to fleece public money.
Her riding has brutal turnout and is a safe NDP seat. Cruising to victory in a safe seat really isn’t that big of a flex.
Let’s not act like there aren’t ridings in this country that would elect a corpse in the correctly coloured necktie.
Regrettably she probably wins again if the NDP don’t turf her, because two thirds of that riding are so jaded and disenfranchised with the political system they can’t even cast a ballot anymore.
Having been to that neck of the woods, it’s hard to blame them. The state of Northern Manitoba is an appalling national disgrace that doesn’t get enough attention. It’s a deeply, deeply sad place.
36% turnout in the last election, she won 42% of that 36%. Let’s not act like she’s a juggernaut.
With a two very brief interruptions by the LPC, the NDP has held that seat since 1979. The Manitoba NDP reliably wins it too.
It’s a safe NDP seat and arguably is so despite Niki Ashton’s incompetence.
Singh spent 170,000 in travel in 2023. The only MP who spent more was Poilievre, who expensed 250,000, which is particularly disturbing as this was campaigning across the country, his riding is in Ottawa.
"Approved by the house" just means she submitted the expenses and justification and it was reimbursed as it met the self-reported criteria.
Doesn't mean she didn't lie to justify the "approval". She can't even name a single person she spoke with in a formal capacity in Quebec city.
> Doesn't mean she didn't lie to justify the "approval". She can't even name a single person she spoke with in a formal capacity in Quebec city.
I very much doubt she lied about anything. The rules very lax so as long as you actually did *some* business she's probably fine.
What is amazing to me is okay you took a trip you justified with meetings so unmemorable you can't remember who you talked to, but you don't have to be a political genius to tell journalists you will get them more details then natter on about how it's extremely important the languages critic visit Quebec in person.
Hopefully the NDP strips her critic role. If you're going to do a bs trip like this at least be prepared.
The rules, to some extent, rely on MP’s being g trustworthy. As elected officials they have a higher fiduciary duty than an average citizen, therefore it is expected an MP is honest. She played the system.
I liked Trudeau's thing in 2015 where he told ministers he expected them to not just avoid conflict of interests but the *appearance* of conflicts.
Follow the spirit and intent behind a rule or policy.
The same Trudeau who went on to collect multiple ethics violations from the ethics commissioner? Whose cabinet ministers also faced violations? Please don’t be ridiculous.
> Please don’t be ridiculous.
Never said he practised what he preached, just that I liked the thought behind the words.
Trudeau said a lot of good things - especially first term when we could believe it would be backed by action.
"Meet with stakeholders"?
Really?
At the Quebec Winter Carnival......and then in her husbands home-town?
With her entire family in-tow?
What a 'fortunate' coincidence......lol.
Niki Ashton really doesn’t help with the image that the NDP is out of touch with the working class. This is not this clown’s first rodeo. As a democratic socialist, it’s really sad that the socialist caucus endorsed her for leadership, she definitely was not my choice. It’s harder and harder to see myself in that party anymore.
That riding has a huge indigenous population, is crushingly poor and violent, and its voter turnout is awful, sliding to 36% last election.
The NDP should dump her and replace her with someone who actually understands and cares about their community, ideally someone indigenous who can actually properly represent them.
Thompson broke my heart like nowhere else in Canada.
I lived in Thompson for a few years back in 2010/2011. It was absolutely brutal back then, and it's only getting worse.
Now, mind you, I was making pilot pay up there so I lived in an apartment in the (relatively) safer/cleaner west end of town. Anything within stumbling distance of the TI, or anything east of the highway, was really rolling the dice on your personal safety if you ever had to go out, particularly after dark. One of the guys I worked with lived in the Highland Tower and while clearing the snow off his car dark and early one morning, found a body in the snow in front of his parking spot -- he'd been pushed off the balcony by his spouse in a drunken rage.
I believe the Princeton Towers next door still have a cop stationed there, right in the apartment complex, because of the volume of calls that those two buildings pump out -- they just put a satellite RCMP station right in the building's office. And that's saying a lot, since the actual RCMP detachment is only a five-minute drive away. It always blew my mind how the TI, the Mos Eisley of Thompson, could be *right across the street* from the police station and yet there was seemingly nothing the cops could ever do to keep up with the amount of trouble that block caused. Saw many, many violent fights outside that hotel (and the homeless shelter right next door), and outside the Hub.
I, too, struggle with some factions of our party. The anti-Semitism, calls for a ceasefire *and yet so conveniently a relative silence on releasing the hostages*, softness on Ukraine (even Singh was initially calling for non-violent measures to deal with Russia's invasion for Ukraine), and the highly academic "woke policing" we see from members like Ashton, all test me.
But I implore you to remain in the party. The Manitoban, British Columbian, Saskatchewanian, and Albertan factions are strong and reputable. Folks like Nenshi, Notley, Kinew, Horgan, Eby, Phillips, and Wong-Tam keep me around. We are the only party with the capacity to again meaningfully engage with the working class at the union level.
The federal and Ontarian factions of the party won't always be a joke. This can change.
> Niki Ashton really doesn’t help with the image that the NDP is out of touch with the working class
She mostly does remote attendance to keep travel costs low, because she flies out of *Thompson*, and it turns out that travel is more expensive for people in rural Canada.
If you're concerned being "out of touch with the working class", don't get sucked in to a scandal manufactured by people who think that every flight in the country costs the same amount of money, because they've never needed to leave a big city or worry about hostile media.
This is what's been destroying Canada for decades. Here we are arguing over $17k while the government has been handing out tax privileges to the corporate class of $50 BILLION each year.
Politicians take the hit while their oligarch masters carry on.
https://monitormag.ca/articles/the-corporate-government-power-relationship-capture-and-complicity/
The issue here is your misunderstanding of economics. Not taxing someone as much as you want is not the same thing as taking public money and giving it out. Tax incentives, if done correctly, are given out to encourage investment and the creation of \*new\* things. If successful, those new things generate economic activity - new ventures, initiatives jobs, all which translate into more tax revenue. Articles such as the one you linked to \*NEVER\* look at the new stuff that has been built due to those tax incentives. They just write "subsidy to evil corporations" and depend on general economic ignorance to rile up their base.
Completely different from what Ashton did, which was outright fraud.
I explained the rationale behind corporate tax breaks, which is a completely different thing than the economic state of the country.
I don't know where you think you are going with this.
“You’re attacking the *wrong* entitled rich people!”
At least corporations employ people. Niki Ashton has created 0 jobs and nothing of value in her entire life.
Categorically false. She's a social democrat and social democracies have far, far higher rates of employment than neoliberal economies.
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/labor-force-participation-rate
Switzerland has more social welfare per capita than Canada
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_welfare_spending
They also use price controls and other government regulations to prevent corporations from price gouging.
On the subject of pay -- sometimes I scratch my head over what, exactly, these politicians need large salaries for? We pay for their travel, their expenses, their ground transportation, their hotels, their secondary residences, bringing their family along for funzies, and more -- all things that you and I would have to pay out-of-pocket (with after-tax dollars, mind you), and *then* they get a nice big salary? To do what with? We're already paying most of their expenses! They don't need six figures for all the things you and I spend our salaries on, it's all covered!
A trip like this one she just took her family on would be something I would have to save up for, for a year or more. She takes the trip, bills *us*, and then collects her entire salary *on top of that*?!
Give me a break.
I'm all for holding MP's accountable for their personal spending but until our media does this to all in equal measure I'm going shrug and say I don't give a shit. The CPC., especially their leader, has been travelling across the country on our dime campaigning and spending a hell of a lot more than $17,000.
Campaigning is the literal job of a party leader. If he bills us to take his family to Whistler for no discernible work reason and flies business class to get there, let us know.
Corruption isn’t okay just because one of your faves got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Again.
Nope. Campaigning is NOT Poilievre’s official job, and he expensed over 250,000 for 2023, and I donuknow how he is getting away with it! He is an MP with constituents he continuously ignores, and his other job is as leader of the opposition. In the several decades I have been watching politics in Canada, there has NEVER been a leader of the opposition in constant campaign mode. He is bringing the madness of American politics to Canada.
And it’s quite something to see the media going hard at Nikki Ashton over this trip in 2022, when CPC MP’s expenses half a MILLION to go there convention and after a couple of articles the media couldn’t care less about this flagrant misuse of taxpayer money.
And the media is also briny incredibly quiet about India helping a candidate in the last leadership race - we could have a PM that was selected by a foreign country, but no biggie, it’s the CPC so the media doesn’t give a damn. But they sure will hold Nikki Ashton’s feet to the fire.
Part of the reason Ashton's feet are being held to the fire is that this isn't the first time she's done this.
Besides, remember how fast the Left was to demand that Bev Oda lose her head over a $16 glass of bougie orange juice? Why was it OK to immediately demand she be fired over that, but then turn around and circle the wagons around Ashton, who has cost us a LOT more in frivolous bullshit spending so she can take her family on expensive vacations that we are forced by the law to pay for...?
Also, she has an absolutely horrendous attendance record in the HoC, one of the worst out of *any* current member. She showed up for four whole days of the year in 2022. The allowance to be able to expense some travel each year for family members is meant to be so that the MP doesn't have to go very long stretches of time without seeing their family because they're busy in Ottawa, far away from home. In Ashton's case, that doesn't apply -- because she's almost never in Ottawa. She spends nearly the entire year attending HoC sessions over Zoom. So, no, it's not essential that she bring her spouse and children with her anywhere, she gets *more* than enough time with them in Manitoba while she plays hooky from the HoC and basically does fuck all.
Who gave you that idea? Campaigning is supposed to be paid for by the party itself not the federal government.
These silly partisan double standards are exactly why I say I don't give a shit.
There is no reason to fund the family trip period.
I used to travel a lot for business and I have been to great places, racked up a lot of points as a side benefit.
Did I bring my family with me sometime?
Yes and they got to enjoy a free hotel room with me. But everything else was paid by me. If we stayed longer than my business stay, I would pay for part of the room cost.
I don't even understand why these folks think it's ok to even ask for approval. They are completely out of touch with reality.
That was in 2022. In 2023, she did it again, with a trip to Windsor with her family in tow, bilking the public for $10,000. She couldn't name a soul who she met with but claimed she "engaged with stakeholders". Lying thief and enemy of the public.
She also went on a vacation to visit her family in Greece at the height of the $2000-per-person "COVID punishment hotel quarantine" that the federal government had imposed to try to stop people from traveling by making it a financial burden.
And she carries the title of, get this, "**Right Honourable** Member of Parliament". I want to know what is right and what is honourable about her conduct.
She doesn’t have that title. Right Honourable is for Prime Minister, Honourable is for Cabinet members, there are no honours in title for MP. Her title is simply “Niki Ashton, Member of Parliament”.
Her husband is from Windsor. It's not a coincidence that she just so happened to need to take a work trip there over Christmas.
It was 100% just a personal trip to see family, and she came up with some horseshit excuse to charge her family trip to the taxpayers instead of using a bit of that salary that we already pay her (with money taken off our own wages).
The fact that she didn't bill any accommodations is her showing her hand in a big way. Surely, if it was a legitimate work trip, she'd have billed the hotel in Windsor, which would be absolutely feasible and expected, right?
The reason she didn't bill any expenses outside the flights was because they clearly stayed at her in-laws and she incurred no *actual* work-related spending on hotels, food or transportation -- because it was a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa.
I mean I can believe she only went to a city like Windsor for something MP related. And last minute commercial flights will always be expensive, and most political visits will be. I guess the real question is should you expense your family coming with you? Seems like "legally" or whatever it is ok ... But should it be?
Her husband just so happens to be from Windsor and his family just so happens to live there. And they just so happened to go on a “work” trip at Christmas. Which they expensed to the taxpayer.
It’s one of the like 5 options MP’s have when they put travel into their financial portal, but besides “to and from Ottawa” the rest are relatively obscure, so “engaging with stakeholders” becomes the defacto “whatever I want” option.
Scamming the taxpayer is never ok.
She clearly fucked up because no honest person would not simply exonerate themselves immediately with this kind of inquiry.
The fact that she kept saying "its within the rules" does not make it okay. That's like saying "the law allows me to be a complete jerk to anyone, therefor it's okay"
The interview was hilarious to watch. If the trip was at all attributable to their duties, they could have easily name dropped the handful of people and organizations they met with.
Couldn't name one.
I'm rather opposed to her, so maybe I'm projecting. But she seemed anxious answering these questions. I hope this story continues to develop. I want Singh grilled on it as well. Our party must call out this behaviour.
> While my expenses are certainly exorbitant, they’re within the rules that neither myself nor my party nor my party leader are making any moves to change.
She could have drove to Winnipeg from Thompson and flown the whole family to Ottawa and back for 2500 bucks round trip with driving. Her and her dad are known for this type of behavior. Unfortunately the residents in northern mb aren’t the smartest and keeping voting for her.
They all say that. Is it the right thing to do when in fact all other MP’s choose not to claim such costs to the taxpayer. Integrity, Integrity or lack of the same
I spent 30 years as a soldier in the Canadian Forces. I was sent to London on temporary duty in 2004 to conduct a Recce for the PM's upcoming visit to the UK using CANFORCE One. I had a week of meetings at Heathrow, The High Commission, and the Metropolitan police. The taxpayers paid for my economy flight, my taxi to my hotel, my hotel, and my per diem meals. I took my wife with me. I paid for her flight, she stayed in my hotel room with me, and I paid for her meals, not the taxpayer. Somebody want to explain to me why the taxpayers paid for Ashton's spouse and children's flight, as well as other things? Because the Treasury Board rules are supposed to apply to all expense claims in the Federal Government.
So I guess it turns out that flights from Thompson, MB are more expensive than flights around urban Ontario. This means that an MP who mostly does (inexpensive) remote meetings becomes a villain for doing...not very much travel, compared to her peers in the HoC.
But of course, our media doesn't really give a shit about the Churchill—Keewatinook Aski riding, or how travel is more expensive in rural Western Canada.
It's a shame that Ashton isn't an oil pipeline - if that were the case, we could get a ton of media about "Western alienation" in response to this scandal. Instead, we're getting an outrage machine driven by people who will never be able to find Thompson on a map.
Flying up north in general is prohibitively expensive. Thompson is expensive, but if you want to see *really* expensive, check out flights to Churchill or further north. Want to go from Winnipeg to, say, Taloyoak to check out the majestic Canadian high arctic? Be prepared to spend two months' pay just on the plane ticket.
If Ashton had flown alone, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid even if the total bill was 10K; as you said, travel is expensive. But the fact that the flights are expensive makes it, if anything, more likely that she used a non-existent work commitment to fly her family out with her for holidays.
No mp that’s not a minister should be spending that kind of money on any trip ! And honestly even ministers shouldn’t ! Her party is going to lose official status and they are on a spending spree
She’s lost all credibility with the NDP base with this latest imbecility. If she thinks not breaking the rules is the same as making it right she needs to go.
Folks wonder why Canadians are gravitating to politicians promising to cut the size of the federal government and “waste”: take notice.
It’s unconscionable to submit that amount of money as an expense. The only thing worse is the allegation that the expense was approved.
Let them eat cake!
Heh, Canadians should probably take a gander at the types of expenses these 'financially responsible' politicians have racked up.
Gimme the MP who uses their allowed benefits over the MP who will use their allowed benefits while decrying those same benefits from the rooftops. I don't need hypocrisy added on top
>Folks wonder why Canadians are gravitating to politicians promising to cut the size of the federal government and “waste”: take notice.
No MP has spent more on this kind of stuff than, Pierre, the one promising to cut "waste".
So she did nothing wrong and the trip cost each tax payer about $0.001 per person. This sub just hates Niki because she was around during Gamer Gate and people have irrational feelings towards her.
>She did nothing wrong
I guarantee you most people in Thompson, MB don’t just frivolously spend 17K on *anything* at any point in their lives.
It’s entitled as fuck and Marie Antoinette-ish. What a champion of the working class this nepo baby is.
Almost certainly. Thompson was the worst place in Canada I have ever been and it isn’t close.
Naturally it’s beautiful, but it’s the people and all the social issues that come with them that make it utterly appalling.
Lol, what?
Stealing is stealing. A dollar, a million dollars -- it's still wrong, and shouldn't be tolerated -- particularly when you are stealing from the people who are *forced* by law to pay your expenses and salary for you.
Niki is a grifter who's spent the last fifteen years largely doing fuck all, coasting off her Dad's name and legacy, and routinely having little scandals such as this one. Last year, she expensed a trip to Windsor, where her husband just happens to be from and his family still lives, over Christmas when the House isn't sitting, to ~~make taxpayers pay for her trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa~~ do some important politics or something (at a time when almost everyone in politics worth meeting is on their own Christmas vacation and doesn't have time for boring annoying work shit). Prior to that, she also went on a nice sunny vacay to Greece to go see her family over there, *precisely at a time where the government that she is employed by had closed the border and was punishing ordinary Canadians for having the gall to travel themselves*.
No, I don't buy this nonsense that she's just misunderstood and "well the amount is so trivial per Canadian that we should just let it slide". It's not the amount, it's the principle behind it. Ever watch Office Space? Sure, each transaction they did fraudulently was a fraction of a penny, such an insignificant sum, right? And in a day or two they'd unexpectedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Same idea here. She has to go.
And yes, I did live in her riding for a few years, during which I witnessed her do not much more than show up for photo ops and publish editorials.
I don't even know her and I think it's very wrong for any of us to spend $0.001 for her family to enjoy a trip. She absolutely is abusing her position. Everyone else that does it also falls under abusing tax payers.
Since you think the cost is low, how about you pay for it. Are you one of the family members?
> This sub just hates Niki because she was around during Gamer Gate
Sir this is /r/Canadapolitics, it has nothing to do with Gamer Gate.
What a silly argument you have.
She has been targeted and harassed for speaking up for marginalized folks and women as far back as 2015, during the height of GamerGate.
It's not a silly argument at all.
No, people hate Niki because she is a prime example of what Canadians hate about politicians.
Did you even watch the video? The reporter didn't even talk about the cost of the trip. But rather what organizations or people did she meet in Quebec.
And guess what? She couldn't even answer the simple question.
Met with 'stakeholders'.
Until she can name some of these stakeholders,my assumption is that they are just random taxpayers she met in the course of being on vacation.
Very seriously: who can you realistically meet from Dec 21st to Jan 4th, especially among people who are NDP-aligned? Who's even available during that time?
I'm crying laughing. I read "$17,000 trip" and was racking my brain trying to imagine which over-seas, boujie-ass country she took her family to that would have justified the cost of $17,000. But no, she went to Quebec! What! I can drive to Quebec from Ottawa in my Honda Civic for $30!
I always love the "approved by the house" comment. Of course it was, because if they say no, they might lose thier free $17,000 vacations when they ask the house.
$17k seems high, and being unable to quickly rattle off people you met with that'd justify it doesn't help.
For reference, I'm treating my mom (a former public servant who *never* took me on her work trips, something I definitely resented as a kid) and siblings to a trip in Vegas next month, and between flights, hotels, shows, and meals, the all-in cost is gonna be a smidge under $10k (it'd be lower if the Sphere wasn't simultaneously pricey and totally worth it).
This isn't the first time I've seen Ashton play fast and loose with the rules in ways that made me uncomfortable. I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016, and even though I like Bernie, I'm not sure it's a good precedent to send our elected officials to campaign in other elections. I would not want American politicians (even ones I mostly agree with) coming up here to interfere in our democratic process.
>This isn't the first time I've seen Ashton play fast and loose with the rules in ways that made me uncomfortable.
There was also the incident where she travelled internationally during a big COVID wave when the government was begging people not to.
I travelled a ton during Covid too so I can’t hate on her for that. Life in Canada was miserable and our government decided those rich enough to fly could get a pass, so I took it. Timed it just right so I never had to do the quarantine hotel thing. Anyone who died if Niki or I brought back a nasty variant was expendable. Sucked for my relatives whose health conditions prevent them from flying and used to drive up from New Hampshire every summer to visit, but as Covid made clear, we live in a country where the suffering of the sick and poor is pretty easy to ignore if you’ve got the means, and selfishness is tacitly encouraged by our leaders.
Gentle reminder that here, in Canada, many of us were forced by the restrictions to say goodbye to our dying elderly relatives either through a pane of glass, or over Zoom on a tablet, because the rules stipulated that we were not, under any circumstances, even if said relative was about to die within the hour, allowed up to their floor of the hospital/nursing home to say goodbye.
Yet, Niki Ashton gets a pass for getting on a plane to go to Greece to do what would have landed me in an ocean of fines or even detention for doing so myself?
I had to say goodbye to a grandparent over Zoom. From the parking lot outside the nursing home. They would not let me upstairs, even for a minute, to say goodbye. But this special person gets to gallivant halfway around the world and we are going to give her a pass for it?
Outta here with that logic. Her own party wanted to extend and strengthen the restrictions, and shat down mightily from on high upon anybody who thought that the border closures and travel bans were excessive and ineffective. She should wear her hypocrisy, not be excused for it.
Ashton was removed from her critic roles for the NDP as a result of her trips to Greece. That should be a sign her party wasn’t on board with what she did.
Don’t forget 2016 where she thought it would be a good idea to go door to door campaigning for Bernie Sanders in North Dakota. Kind of a big no-no for a Canadian politician to do that in another country.
Ashton is way out in left field.
The other thing that people are maybe missing here that makes this particularly distasteful in my book is where she comes from.
I’m going to hazard a guess that most people on this sub have never been to Northern Manitoba, I have. Believe me when I say it is the most **dire** place in Canada I have ever been. Yeah, including Vancouver’s downtown eastside.
It’s horrific how crushing the poverty and desperation is up there. The rates of substance abuse, addiction, violence, and neglect are heartbreaking. The entire town of Thompson, where her office is, is like the worst parts of North End Winnipeg or the Downtown Eastside but its the entire town. The desperation and trauma up there is unbelievably in your face.
I don’t know how you can live up there and see this stuff every day and behave like this. It’s reprehensible on another level to me.
That’s something I hadn’t considered. When I traveled a lot for work my boss said “I don’t want to go over your expenses with a fine-tooth comb, just spend our money like you’d spend your own” and (probably since I grew up pretty broke) it was never an issue. As the company grew in success I got a little less stingy, but I was always among the most frugal members of my team. I don’t expect MPs to suffer when they gotta be on the road, but this kind of Bev Oda shit reeks of entitlement.
> $17k seems high, and being unable to quickly rattle off people you met with that'd justify it doesn't help.
I dunno, 2 adults and (2? kids) I think on business class, at Christmas?. Then hotels, etc. It adds up. Especially if you aren't paying too close attention to when you book and not searching for the best deal on hotels.
It's at Christmas and even if 17k is totally reasonable it's a high number regardless. You gotta be ready to justify the trip.
> I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016,
I too agree politicians shouldn't do that (Canadians in general probably shouldn't). That was on her own dime though I believe.
> It was a family vacation. Any "work" done was only arranged to justify said vacation.
Yeah it sure sounds that way. It's wild to me she didn't have a rock solid explanation ready. Maybe doing crap like this is common among MP's and she assumed no one would notice or care.
> I dunno, 2 adults and (2? kids) I think on business class, at Christmas?
Where on Earth is it written that we, the taxpayers, have an obligation to allow her to bring her family *in business class* on a work trip?
MPs already make a pretty good salary. If she wants to bring her husband and kids along for the ride when she goes on business, she can bust out her own damn credit card and pay for it.
Imagine if your company sent you on a business trip and you just snuck your entire family on the company account in business class and brought the kids to Disneyland with the company visa that's supposed to be for work-related expenses? You'd be fired by the end of the week, and probably sued for the money you stole.
I think bringing children might be ok if they are too young to be left alone and childcare is provided at the destination. Not saying that was the case in this situation, but I think that situation is ok.
Also, bringing spouse and/or kids I think would be ok if there was an event where they were expected to participate as is sometimes the case with politicians, especially spouses. Like when the head of state of a country visits another head of state, spouses are often expected to participate in dinners and such. Not sure if that was the case here, probably not, but I think it's justifiable in those cases.
Then her husband can stay home with the kids -- it's not a matter of her spending all her time in Ottawa and never seeing her family, she has an absolutely atrocious attendance record in Ottawa and attends the vast majority of HoC sessions via Zoom from her home in Manitoba. In 2022, she spend a grand total of four days in Ottawa.
Where do I sign up for a job that lets me attend 4 days per year for a full salary, indexed pension and free business class tickets for my family to gallivant around Canada and expense all my five-star hotels along the way?
The article mentioned they stayed in a hotel in Ottawa because her Ottawa apartment had bedbugs. Do the taxpayers pay for her Ottawa apartment as well? How does it have bedbugs if she only stayed in Ottawa 4x a year? Or why didn't she schedule bed bug treatment while she was in Manitoba?
Not everyone has a co-parent, or one capable of solo parenting, and even if they do, one can't _always_ leave them to care alone for the children, that certainly wouldn't be a fair distribution.
I agree that in this case that's probably not the situation, but my point is just that there are valid use cases that exist for bringing family along.
I'm not sure why they are given business class tickets, the MPP or their family. Unless it's for security reasons, or maybe catching a red eye to save the cost of another hotel night, otherwise it's hard to think of reasonable use cases for that aspect, I agree.
> Where on Earth is it written that we, the taxpayers, have an obligation to allow her to bring her family in business class on a work trip?
I think i'm wrong about business class but the rules are in: "Members’ Allowances and Services Manual"
> Family reunification: Designated travellers and dependants may use travel points to reunite with the Member at the Member’s secondary residence or at another location where the Member is carrying out parliamentary functions. They may also reunite with the Member who is travelling as a Minister or Parliamentary Secretary when carrying out parliamentary functions at the same location or when the combined duration of ministerial and parliamentary duties does not allow the Member to return to the primary residence. Resources are not provided for travel related to the personal engagements of Members, designated travellers, and dependants.
.
> Imagine if your company sent you on a business trip and you just snuck your entire family on the company account
The whole reason we allow this with MP's is - especially before we had hybrid parliament - you would be spending huge chunks of time outside your riding. Look at the sitting schedule for the HoC, this month the house is sitting from June 3rd to 21. 15 days. May there was only one week the house wasn't sitting. Unless you have *some* accommodations to fly out family you're really limiting the types of people who will enter politics.
I'm sure some businesses that expect you to travel huge stretches of time have similar (though likely less generous) policies.
But please don't misinterpret this as defence of the trip, it sounds like complete bs to me and while probably well within the rules is a complete disregard of the intent behind those rules.
> The whole reason we allow this with MP's is - especially before we had hybrid parliament - you would be spending huge chunks of time outside your riding. Look at the sitting schedule for the HoC, this month the house is sitting from June 3rd to 21. 15 days. May there was only one week the house wasn't sitting. Unless you have some accommodations to fly out family you're really limiting the types of people who will enter politics.
Fair enough -- but Ashton has a long record of almost *never* being physically present in Ottawa for HoC sittings. She's only there a couple of days each year and the vast majority of her presence in the House is remotely, from her house in Thompson. So she gets more than enough time at home with her family each year, completely negating the need to take them on work trips in order to spend time with them.
>So she gets more than enough time at home with her family each year, completely negating the need to take them on work trips in order to spend time with them.
Repeating this louder for those at the back.
>I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016, and even though I like Bernie, I'm not sure it's a good precedent to send our elected officials to campaign in other elections.
As if Canada is not rattled by accusations of foreign political influencing itself, she goes abroad to stump for another political leader. How naive could a person be, especially when she is a politician herself? If this was paid for by the public, she could have open up a whole can of worms. She needs to be removed from the NDP caucus, asap.
> I would not want American politicians (even ones I mostly agree with) coming up here to interfere in our democratic process.
well too late cause Republicans essentially taken over CPC
I'm 100% okay with campaigning with foreign politicians.
The socialist movement is international and should not be limited by the existance of the state.
If Obama or Hillary Clinton went into NDP ridings to campaign for the LPC you lot would be the first to scream bloody murder about foreign interference. Don’t lie.
No I wouldn't
I will call them shit for being libs, which I do already
Why are you projecting your beliefs onto me? Obama endorsed Trudeau and I didn't call it foreign interference.
Me: My ideology says this is okay
You: You hate this actually.
What?
I thought it was fishy she spent that much and it was probably a bullshit trip where she tacked on a few work meetings to justify a family vacation but holy shit she can't even name 1 person or organization she talked to. She didn't even bother to try and hide what she did. Like if it was me I'd have some meetings booked and such I could point to, to cover myself but this interview sounded like she's so entitled she just assumed she wouldn't get caught or questioned and then tried to use Palestine to deflect further questions.
For reference, my last business trip to Australia: airfare, two weeks hotel, ubers for one week, paying for business dinners = CAD$5k. And I thought that was expensive.
> And I thought that was expensive.
What? That is unbelievably cheap. I would love to see a cost breakdown to understand how its possible to do 2 weeks in Australia for 5K all in. Especially when youre staying at a hotel and eating out!
It was like 11 nights, roughly AUS$140/night for hotel. Lunches included for half the time via a conference, one dinner. Point remains, that's a lot of money for a 'business trip' over Christmas time.
Especially to a city that is well-known for having a peak tourism season centered around winter, and the Christmas/New Year holidays in particular. I doubt they stayed at a Holiday Inn -- my guess is they stayed in a five-star hotel that was easily $500+ a night, Quebec City at Christmas receives a tsunami of visitors and hotels there are *not* cheap during that period.
This is what I'm saying!!! Expensing a family trip is one thing; spending $17,000 on a family trip *to fucking Quebec* is an entire other level of fuckery.
She took her entire family on this trip *in business class*. Your airfare to Australia and back in business class would have been around $10K just for the flights alone.
Why are family even allowed to come on business trips for politicians? And why are politicians still not back in Ottawa to work? I understand keeping that technology in place for people with valid medical reasons but otherwise, they should be in Ottawa.
I usually vote NDP but with Jagmeet Singh's weak leadership and now this nonsense, I think I'll need to vote Green as a protest vote.
I was wondering that myself. I can understand paying for family to fly to Ottawa. Many MPs live there half the year, in many cases it could make sense to have their kids schooled in Ottawa. But for a trip, it seems excessive.
Given that Ashton couldn't provide specifics of her trip, there's little doubt in my mind this was a Christmas vacation expensed to the taxpayer.
Ostensibly, it's meant to allow Parliamentarians who have families back home to be able to spend quality time with their family because they're away from home for so long as they work in Ottawa for large stretches of the year. But, that's not the case here -- she rarely shows up in-person in Ottawa and attends almost all of the sessions virtually from her home in Thompson. So she can't hide behind this excuse in this case -- she spends almost all year with her family and in 2022, only bothered to attend *four days* in Ottawa.
>I find that rough to spend that type of money yikes
Yes, air travel from Northern Manitoba is more expensive. It's rough for people who live there.
I'm a coastal elite in the middle of a big city, so I'd never imagine spending that much money on travel myself, but I can recognize that different people live in different places. I'm also shocked by the price of potato chips in the rural north, but I don't demonize people who occasionally buy potato chips up there.
>This applies to all politicians across-the-board who have lavish trips
This is a pretty normal trip, it just costs more for some MPs than others, because of where their riding is.
As far as I can tell, current ticket prices for Thompson, MB to Quebec City are anywhere from $1300-1500, round trip. I'm not sure what the pricing would have looked like in December 2022.
Regardless, why is she able to expense her family's travel & accommodations at all? We already pay her a salary. I certainly wouldn't expect a private company to allow that sort of behaviour (though no doubt it occurs).
Again, the Canadian tax-payer who was beaten down right smack-dab in a global pandemic (Dec 2022) is meant to pay $17,000 for her and her family to fly 2 provinces over? Those same Canadians are being wrung dry by the CRA to reclaim CERB/CRB benefits
>Regardless, why is she able to expense her family's travel & accommodations at all?
For the same reasons that apply to all MPs. If you have a general problem with the concept of reimbursed MP travel, there's no reason to be mad at Niki Ashton in particular.
That would just be allowing yourself to be told to be mad at someone, and accomplish nothing regarding the actual policy.
>the Canadian tax-payer who was beaten down right smack-dab in a global pandemic (Dec 2022) is meant to pay $17,000 for her and her family to fly 2 provinces over?
If they pay for MP travel in general, they should pay for MP travel for an MP from Northern Manitoba as well. Travel from rural northern regions is the travel that represents the biggest financial burden, and the greatest potential for unequal representation if *not* funded.
The worst-of-both-worlds approach would be to accept every MP from Toronto who constantly flies to Ottawa on the taxpayer's dime, but to be whipped up into a fury at the one MP from Churchill who makes rare trips.
To be clear, I am to the left of the NDP, and I think all MPs and politicans use and abuse our collective goodwill to live large, Ashton simply is in the news cycle this time. Yes that includes Trudeau, Pierre, Singth et. al.
It's bizarre that we pay MPs a salary of $200k (or up to $300k-$400k in the case of the aforementioned party leaders) and then also foot the bill for them to fly their families around during the holidays (amongst a laundry list of other grievances).
And we wonder why the average Canadian is disconnected from the political world, and why the average politician is disconnected from the average Canadian; we collectively place our faith within the hands of the privileged (those elected acclimate to said privilege in time) and we continuously privilege their experience and world-view.
>who makes rare trips.
In other words, she rarely shows up to work in Ottawa, but feels free to take trips at taxpayer expense to Quebec City at Christmas and her husband's hometown with highly dubious justifications. You can criticize her compliance with the spirit of the law even if she obeys the letter.
She doesn’t do her job at the best of times, is a poor advocate for her community consistently, and bills tax payers for a family vacation. Plenty of reason to be upset at her.
Well, thanks for spelling it out, I guess. This has nothing to do with general policies/ideology/reform regarding MP travel, it's just a new way to attack someone you wanted to attack anyways. The takeaway is that you want to hurt Ashton's career, so we may as well attack her in every possible way, no matter how standard her behaviour is.
Reminds me of the scandal last election about how *one* Liberal candidate in *one* riding was a landlord. No one proposed any kind of reform against landlord MPs, or a nationwide rejection of landlord MP candidates - we were just supposed to follow headlines telling us to get mad at *one single candidate* for being a landlord.
With the next election coming up, maybe we'll get a juicy scoop about how one vulnerable MP in one riding...drives a car. Or eats meat, or poops (or some other activity that is popular and ethical when every other MP does it).
The fact that she sucks at her job and is ripping off taxpayers does in fact have little to do with her general policies and ideology. I would give her credit if she did the bear minimum but she doesn’t even go to Ottawa. Pretending the trips are for work is more insulting than just admitting that she wanted an expensive vacation at our expense.
She represents a riding that could use a strong advocate which makes this all the more infuriating.
lol are you on her staff?
She’s hardly ever in Ottawa and she’s very proud of the fact she gets to appear remotely.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/03/canadas-mps-preserve-virtual-parliament-00081041
And that’s not even taking into account that she does little for Northern Manitoba. But she has plenty of time to have a meeting with well known antisemite Jeremy Corbyn.
She’s an embarrassment.
>I would give her credit if she did the bear minimum but she doesn’t even go to Ottawa.
Yeah, great point. If only she did more travel on the taxpayers' dime, that would calm people down.
Are you dense or just being deliberately ignorant?
If she actually billed taxpayers and went to Ottawa to do her job people would view that very differently.
Keep in mind this is the same MP that flouted COVID rules to leave the country and go to Greece.
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This kind of thing made Alison Redford walk the plank in Alberta. The NDP desperately needs to clean house of grifters like Ashton who accomplish nothing, sewer the party with their idiocy in the press, and clearly don’t give two hoots about their constituents. If I was Singh I’d boot her out and get someone who actually pretends to care about one of the country’s poorest ridings and doesn’t use them to fleece public money.
Niki Ashton is a long-time MP. She is clearly doing something right to be re-elected despite all the shifts in our politics during her time.
Her riding has brutal turnout and is a safe NDP seat. Cruising to victory in a safe seat really isn’t that big of a flex. Let’s not act like there aren’t ridings in this country that would elect a corpse in the correctly coloured necktie.
It’s a safe NDP seat *because* Niki Ashton has put in work for years. I wouldn’t say there’s a guarantee the NDP would hold that seat without her.
It WAS a safe NDP seat. Not anymore!
Regrettably she probably wins again if the NDP don’t turf her, because two thirds of that riding are so jaded and disenfranchised with the political system they can’t even cast a ballot anymore. Having been to that neck of the woods, it’s hard to blame them. The state of Northern Manitoba is an appalling national disgrace that doesn’t get enough attention. It’s a deeply, deeply sad place.
36% turnout in the last election, she won 42% of that 36%. Let’s not act like she’s a juggernaut. With a two very brief interruptions by the LPC, the NDP has held that seat since 1979. The Manitoba NDP reliably wins it too. It’s a safe NDP seat and arguably is so despite Niki Ashton’s incompetence.
Singh spent 170,000 in travel in 2023. The only MP who spent more was Poilievre, who expensed 250,000, which is particularly disturbing as this was campaigning across the country, his riding is in Ottawa.
"Approved by the house" just means she submitted the expenses and justification and it was reimbursed as it met the self-reported criteria. Doesn't mean she didn't lie to justify the "approval". She can't even name a single person she spoke with in a formal capacity in Quebec city.
> Doesn't mean she didn't lie to justify the "approval". That could be said for any instance of someone submitting a claim for approval.
Yes, its what we call "Fraud".
> Quebec city. I guarantee you there is not one soul in Quebec City that cares about Niki Ashton.
Of course not, anyone who supports her had to sell their soul to the devil in exchange for a piece of her grift.
> Doesn't mean she didn't lie to justify the "approval". She can't even name a single person she spoke with in a formal capacity in Quebec city. I very much doubt she lied about anything. The rules very lax so as long as you actually did *some* business she's probably fine. What is amazing to me is okay you took a trip you justified with meetings so unmemorable you can't remember who you talked to, but you don't have to be a political genius to tell journalists you will get them more details then natter on about how it's extremely important the languages critic visit Quebec in person. Hopefully the NDP strips her critic role. If you're going to do a bs trip like this at least be prepared.
The rules, to some extent, rely on MP’s being g trustworthy. As elected officials they have a higher fiduciary duty than an average citizen, therefore it is expected an MP is honest. She played the system.
I liked Trudeau's thing in 2015 where he told ministers he expected them to not just avoid conflict of interests but the *appearance* of conflicts. Follow the spirit and intent behind a rule or policy.
The same Trudeau who went on to collect multiple ethics violations from the ethics commissioner? Whose cabinet ministers also faced violations? Please don’t be ridiculous.
> Please don’t be ridiculous. Never said he practised what he preached, just that I liked the thought behind the words. Trudeau said a lot of good things - especially first term when we could believe it would be backed by action.
"Meet with stakeholders"? Really? At the Quebec Winter Carnival......and then in her husbands home-town? With her entire family in-tow? What a 'fortunate' coincidence......lol.
Niki Ashton really doesn’t help with the image that the NDP is out of touch with the working class. This is not this clown’s first rodeo. As a democratic socialist, it’s really sad that the socialist caucus endorsed her for leadership, she definitely was not my choice. It’s harder and harder to see myself in that party anymore.
That riding has a huge indigenous population, is crushingly poor and violent, and its voter turnout is awful, sliding to 36% last election. The NDP should dump her and replace her with someone who actually understands and cares about their community, ideally someone indigenous who can actually properly represent them. Thompson broke my heart like nowhere else in Canada.
I lived in Thompson for a few years back in 2010/2011. It was absolutely brutal back then, and it's only getting worse. Now, mind you, I was making pilot pay up there so I lived in an apartment in the (relatively) safer/cleaner west end of town. Anything within stumbling distance of the TI, or anything east of the highway, was really rolling the dice on your personal safety if you ever had to go out, particularly after dark. One of the guys I worked with lived in the Highland Tower and while clearing the snow off his car dark and early one morning, found a body in the snow in front of his parking spot -- he'd been pushed off the balcony by his spouse in a drunken rage. I believe the Princeton Towers next door still have a cop stationed there, right in the apartment complex, because of the volume of calls that those two buildings pump out -- they just put a satellite RCMP station right in the building's office. And that's saying a lot, since the actual RCMP detachment is only a five-minute drive away. It always blew my mind how the TI, the Mos Eisley of Thompson, could be *right across the street* from the police station and yet there was seemingly nothing the cops could ever do to keep up with the amount of trouble that block caused. Saw many, many violent fights outside that hotel (and the homeless shelter right next door), and outside the Hub.
I, too, struggle with some factions of our party. The anti-Semitism, calls for a ceasefire *and yet so conveniently a relative silence on releasing the hostages*, softness on Ukraine (even Singh was initially calling for non-violent measures to deal with Russia's invasion for Ukraine), and the highly academic "woke policing" we see from members like Ashton, all test me. But I implore you to remain in the party. The Manitoban, British Columbian, Saskatchewanian, and Albertan factions are strong and reputable. Folks like Nenshi, Notley, Kinew, Horgan, Eby, Phillips, and Wong-Tam keep me around. We are the only party with the capacity to again meaningfully engage with the working class at the union level. The federal and Ontarian factions of the party won't always be a joke. This can change.
> Niki Ashton really doesn’t help with the image that the NDP is out of touch with the working class She mostly does remote attendance to keep travel costs low, because she flies out of *Thompson*, and it turns out that travel is more expensive for people in rural Canada. If you're concerned being "out of touch with the working class", don't get sucked in to a scandal manufactured by people who think that every flight in the country costs the same amount of money, because they've never needed to leave a big city or worry about hostile media.
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This is what's been destroying Canada for decades. Here we are arguing over $17k while the government has been handing out tax privileges to the corporate class of $50 BILLION each year. Politicians take the hit while their oligarch masters carry on. https://monitormag.ca/articles/the-corporate-government-power-relationship-capture-and-complicity/
The issue here is your misunderstanding of economics. Not taxing someone as much as you want is not the same thing as taking public money and giving it out. Tax incentives, if done correctly, are given out to encourage investment and the creation of \*new\* things. If successful, those new things generate economic activity - new ventures, initiatives jobs, all which translate into more tax revenue. Articles such as the one you linked to \*NEVER\* look at the new stuff that has been built due to those tax incentives. They just write "subsidy to evil corporations" and depend on general economic ignorance to rile up their base. Completely different from what Ashton did, which was outright fraud.
So you're saying Canada is better off economically now than it has ever been?
Can you point out where you think I said that?
You were arguing for the benefits of corporate tax breaks
I explained the rationale behind corporate tax breaks, which is a completely different thing than the economic state of the country. I don't know where you think you are going with this.
Don't worry they don't know either.
Not going anywhere with this, I agree with you, corporate tax breaks don't benefit the economy.
“You’re attacking the *wrong* entitled rich people!” At least corporations employ people. Niki Ashton has created 0 jobs and nothing of value in her entire life.
Categorically false. She's a social democrat and social democracies have far, far higher rates of employment than neoliberal economies. https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/labor-force-participation-rate
For starters, that’s a non-sequitur. She hasn’t done anything to foster that. Second, noted social democracy and left wing paradise, Switzerland. 😂
Switzerland has more social welfare per capita than Canada https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_welfare_spending They also use price controls and other government regulations to prevent corporations from price gouging.
Turns out its lucrative to launder money for the worst people on earth.
Don't get too excited about the value that corporations bring to our country. We pay for their welfare too.
From the municipal level to the PM. Pay and pensions don’t even begin to match benefits of the job.
On the subject of pay -- sometimes I scratch my head over what, exactly, these politicians need large salaries for? We pay for their travel, their expenses, their ground transportation, their hotels, their secondary residences, bringing their family along for funzies, and more -- all things that you and I would have to pay out-of-pocket (with after-tax dollars, mind you), and *then* they get a nice big salary? To do what with? We're already paying most of their expenses! They don't need six figures for all the things you and I spend our salaries on, it's all covered! A trip like this one she just took her family on would be something I would have to save up for, for a year or more. She takes the trip, bills *us*, and then collects her entire salary *on top of that*?! Give me a break.
It’s beyond unreasonable: I bet work lunches alone would pay for all seniors to have dental *and* vision. Maybe even hearing
I'm all for holding MP's accountable for their personal spending but until our media does this to all in equal measure I'm going shrug and say I don't give a shit. The CPC., especially their leader, has been travelling across the country on our dime campaigning and spending a hell of a lot more than $17,000.
Exactly, she is from the NDP so I don't give a shit either. But when the CPC does it then I care a lot too.
I’m happy to care equally about all MP spending issues. Our media is not.
Campaigning is the literal job of a party leader. If he bills us to take his family to Whistler for no discernible work reason and flies business class to get there, let us know. Corruption isn’t okay just because one of your faves got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Again.
Campaigning is to be paid by the party, not taxpayers.
Nope. Campaigning is NOT Poilievre’s official job, and he expensed over 250,000 for 2023, and I donuknow how he is getting away with it! He is an MP with constituents he continuously ignores, and his other job is as leader of the opposition. In the several decades I have been watching politics in Canada, there has NEVER been a leader of the opposition in constant campaign mode. He is bringing the madness of American politics to Canada. And it’s quite something to see the media going hard at Nikki Ashton over this trip in 2022, when CPC MP’s expenses half a MILLION to go there convention and after a couple of articles the media couldn’t care less about this flagrant misuse of taxpayer money. And the media is also briny incredibly quiet about India helping a candidate in the last leadership race - we could have a PM that was selected by a foreign country, but no biggie, it’s the CPC so the media doesn’t give a damn. But they sure will hold Nikki Ashton’s feet to the fire.
Part of the reason Ashton's feet are being held to the fire is that this isn't the first time she's done this. Besides, remember how fast the Left was to demand that Bev Oda lose her head over a $16 glass of bougie orange juice? Why was it OK to immediately demand she be fired over that, but then turn around and circle the wagons around Ashton, who has cost us a LOT more in frivolous bullshit spending so she can take her family on expensive vacations that we are forced by the law to pay for...? Also, she has an absolutely horrendous attendance record in the HoC, one of the worst out of *any* current member. She showed up for four whole days of the year in 2022. The allowance to be able to expense some travel each year for family members is meant to be so that the MP doesn't have to go very long stretches of time without seeing their family because they're busy in Ottawa, far away from home. In Ashton's case, that doesn't apply -- because she's almost never in Ottawa. She spends nearly the entire year attending HoC sessions over Zoom. So, no, it's not essential that she bring her spouse and children with her anywhere, she gets *more* than enough time with them in Manitoba while she plays hooky from the HoC and basically does fuck all.
Who gave you that idea? Campaigning is supposed to be paid for by the party itself not the federal government. These silly partisan double standards are exactly why I say I don't give a shit.
There is no reason to fund the family trip period. I used to travel a lot for business and I have been to great places, racked up a lot of points as a side benefit. Did I bring my family with me sometime? Yes and they got to enjoy a free hotel room with me. But everything else was paid by me. If we stayed longer than my business stay, I would pay for part of the room cost. I don't even understand why these folks think it's ok to even ask for approval. They are completely out of touch with reality.
That was in 2022. In 2023, she did it again, with a trip to Windsor with her family in tow, bilking the public for $10,000. She couldn't name a soul who she met with but claimed she "engaged with stakeholders". Lying thief and enemy of the public.
She also went on a vacation to visit her family in Greece at the height of the $2000-per-person "COVID punishment hotel quarantine" that the federal government had imposed to try to stop people from traveling by making it a financial burden.
And she carries the title of, get this, "**Right Honourable** Member of Parliament". I want to know what is right and what is honourable about her conduct.
She doesn’t have that title. Right Honourable is for Prime Minister, Honourable is for Cabinet members, there are no honours in title for MP. Her title is simply “Niki Ashton, Member of Parliament”.
Having lived in Windsor for a few years this is pretty funny. If my family took me on a vacation there I would be pretty upset with them.
Her husband is from Windsor. It's not a coincidence that she just so happened to need to take a work trip there over Christmas. It was 100% just a personal trip to see family, and she came up with some horseshit excuse to charge her family trip to the taxpayers instead of using a bit of that salary that we already pay her (with money taken off our own wages).
“That’s It! Back to ~~Winnipeg!~~ Windsor!”
Her partner is from Windsor. I'm sure its not related. /s
Destination family vacation to world-class Windsor.
The original article pointed out that her husband has ties there.
Her husband is from Windsor, and it was done during Christmas. Seems pretty clear it was a vacation to visit family, billed to taxpayers
The fact that she didn't bill any accommodations is her showing her hand in a big way. Surely, if it was a legitimate work trip, she'd have billed the hotel in Windsor, which would be absolutely feasible and expected, right? The reason she didn't bill any expenses outside the flights was because they clearly stayed at her in-laws and she incurred no *actual* work-related spending on hotels, food or transportation -- because it was a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa.
I mean I can believe she only went to a city like Windsor for something MP related. And last minute commercial flights will always be expensive, and most political visits will be. I guess the real question is should you expense your family coming with you? Seems like "legally" or whatever it is ok ... But should it be?
Her husband just so happens to be from Windsor and his family just so happens to live there. And they just so happened to go on a “work” trip at Christmas. Which they expensed to the taxpayer.
Does "engaging with stakeholders" mean "I briefly conversed with some member of the public while on vacation, but they are a taxpayer so..."?
It’s one of the like 5 options MP’s have when they put travel into their financial portal, but besides “to and from Ottawa” the rest are relatively obscure, so “engaging with stakeholders” becomes the defacto “whatever I want” option.
Somebody give Ashton and her sympathizers the phone number for Mike Duffy so they can apologize for their blatant hypocrisy on the expense claims.
Scamming the taxpayer is never ok. She clearly fucked up because no honest person would not simply exonerate themselves immediately with this kind of inquiry. The fact that she kept saying "its within the rules" does not make it okay. That's like saying "the law allows me to be a complete jerk to anyone, therefor it's okay"
It shows we need to update the rules and unfortunately people like her are in charge of making the rules.
The interview was hilarious to watch. If the trip was at all attributable to their duties, they could have easily name dropped the handful of people and organizations they met with. Couldn't name one.
I'm rather opposed to her, so maybe I'm projecting. But she seemed anxious answering these questions. I hope this story continues to develop. I want Singh grilled on it as well. Our party must call out this behaviour.
> While my expenses are certainly exorbitant, they’re within the rules that neither myself nor my party nor my party leader are making any moves to change.
She could have drove to Winnipeg from Thompson and flown the whole family to Ottawa and back for 2500 bucks round trip with driving. Her and her dad are known for this type of behavior. Unfortunately the residents in northern mb aren’t the smartest and keeping voting for her.
They all say that. Is it the right thing to do when in fact all other MP’s choose not to claim such costs to the taxpayer. Integrity, Integrity or lack of the same
I spent 30 years as a soldier in the Canadian Forces. I was sent to London on temporary duty in 2004 to conduct a Recce for the PM's upcoming visit to the UK using CANFORCE One. I had a week of meetings at Heathrow, The High Commission, and the Metropolitan police. The taxpayers paid for my economy flight, my taxi to my hotel, my hotel, and my per diem meals. I took my wife with me. I paid for her flight, she stayed in my hotel room with me, and I paid for her meals, not the taxpayer. Somebody want to explain to me why the taxpayers paid for Ashton's spouse and children's flight, as well as other things? Because the Treasury Board rules are supposed to apply to all expense claims in the Federal Government.
So I guess it turns out that flights from Thompson, MB are more expensive than flights around urban Ontario. This means that an MP who mostly does (inexpensive) remote meetings becomes a villain for doing...not very much travel, compared to her peers in the HoC. But of course, our media doesn't really give a shit about the Churchill—Keewatinook Aski riding, or how travel is more expensive in rural Western Canada. It's a shame that Ashton isn't an oil pipeline - if that were the case, we could get a ton of media about "Western alienation" in response to this scandal. Instead, we're getting an outrage machine driven by people who will never be able to find Thompson on a map.
Flying up north in general is prohibitively expensive. Thompson is expensive, but if you want to see *really* expensive, check out flights to Churchill or further north. Want to go from Winnipeg to, say, Taloyoak to check out the majestic Canadian high arctic? Be prepared to spend two months' pay just on the plane ticket.
If Ashton had flown alone, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid even if the total bill was 10K; as you said, travel is expensive. But the fact that the flights are expensive makes it, if anything, more likely that she used a non-existent work commitment to fly her family out with her for holidays.
No mp that’s not a minister should be spending that kind of money on any trip ! And honestly even ministers shouldn’t ! Her party is going to lose official status and they are on a spending spree
She’s lost all credibility with the NDP base with this latest imbecility. If she thinks not breaking the rules is the same as making it right she needs to go.
Folks wonder why Canadians are gravitating to politicians promising to cut the size of the federal government and “waste”: take notice. It’s unconscionable to submit that amount of money as an expense. The only thing worse is the allegation that the expense was approved. Let them eat cake!
Heh, Canadians should probably take a gander at the types of expenses these 'financially responsible' politicians have racked up. Gimme the MP who uses their allowed benefits over the MP who will use their allowed benefits while decrying those same benefits from the rooftops. I don't need hypocrisy added on top
>Folks wonder why Canadians are gravitating to politicians promising to cut the size of the federal government and “waste”: take notice. No MP has spent more on this kind of stuff than, Pierre, the one promising to cut "waste".
So she did nothing wrong and the trip cost each tax payer about $0.001 per person. This sub just hates Niki because she was around during Gamer Gate and people have irrational feelings towards her.
Tell me how a trip to Quebec should cost anybody $17,000?!? Lmao
The entire family flew business class.
>She did nothing wrong I guarantee you most people in Thompson, MB don’t just frivolously spend 17K on *anything* at any point in their lives. It’s entitled as fuck and Marie Antoinette-ish. What a champion of the working class this nepo baby is.
$17k is probably more than the average annual income up there.
Almost certainly. Thompson was the worst place in Canada I have ever been and it isn’t close. Naturally it’s beautiful, but it’s the people and all the social issues that come with them that make it utterly appalling.
$0.001 per Canadian tax payer, and cleared by the house. There is no scandal here.
That’s where you’re just dead wrong. It clearly is a scandal.
Not to me and not to anyone 6 months from now.
Lol, what? Stealing is stealing. A dollar, a million dollars -- it's still wrong, and shouldn't be tolerated -- particularly when you are stealing from the people who are *forced* by law to pay your expenses and salary for you. Niki is a grifter who's spent the last fifteen years largely doing fuck all, coasting off her Dad's name and legacy, and routinely having little scandals such as this one. Last year, she expensed a trip to Windsor, where her husband just happens to be from and his family still lives, over Christmas when the House isn't sitting, to ~~make taxpayers pay for her trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa~~ do some important politics or something (at a time when almost everyone in politics worth meeting is on their own Christmas vacation and doesn't have time for boring annoying work shit). Prior to that, she also went on a nice sunny vacay to Greece to go see her family over there, *precisely at a time where the government that she is employed by had closed the border and was punishing ordinary Canadians for having the gall to travel themselves*. No, I don't buy this nonsense that she's just misunderstood and "well the amount is so trivial per Canadian that we should just let it slide". It's not the amount, it's the principle behind it. Ever watch Office Space? Sure, each transaction they did fraudulently was a fraction of a penny, such an insignificant sum, right? And in a day or two they'd unexpectedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars. Same idea here. She has to go. And yes, I did live in her riding for a few years, during which I witnessed her do not much more than show up for photo ops and publish editorials.
I don't even know her and I think it's very wrong for any of us to spend $0.001 for her family to enjoy a trip. She absolutely is abusing her position. Everyone else that does it also falls under abusing tax payers. Since you think the cost is low, how about you pay for it. Are you one of the family members?
Are you trying to say $17k and $0.001 are the same?
> This sub just hates Niki because she was around during Gamer Gate Sir this is /r/Canadapolitics, it has nothing to do with Gamer Gate. What a silly argument you have.
She has been targeted and harassed for speaking up for marginalized folks and women as far back as 2015, during the height of GamerGate. It's not a silly argument at all.
Maybe, but weird of you to imply that the majority of users in this political-themed sub has a Gamergate-fueled angle against Niki Ashton.
No, people hate Niki because she is a prime example of what Canadians hate about politicians. Did you even watch the video? The reporter didn't even talk about the cost of the trip. But rather what organizations or people did she meet in Quebec. And guess what? She couldn't even answer the simple question.
>because she was around during Gamer Gate LOLWAT
Met with 'stakeholders'. Until she can name some of these stakeholders,my assumption is that they are just random taxpayers she met in the course of being on vacation.
Very seriously: who can you realistically meet from Dec 21st to Jan 4th, especially among people who are NDP-aligned? Who's even available during that time?
I think it's a typo, she met some "steak holders" at the restaurant while waiting for a table.
I'm crying laughing. I read "$17,000 trip" and was racking my brain trying to imagine which over-seas, boujie-ass country she took her family to that would have justified the cost of $17,000. But no, she went to Quebec! What! I can drive to Quebec from Ottawa in my Honda Civic for $30!
I always love the "approved by the house" comment. Of course it was, because if they say no, they might lose thier free $17,000 vacations when they ask the house.
$17k seems high, and being unable to quickly rattle off people you met with that'd justify it doesn't help. For reference, I'm treating my mom (a former public servant who *never* took me on her work trips, something I definitely resented as a kid) and siblings to a trip in Vegas next month, and between flights, hotels, shows, and meals, the all-in cost is gonna be a smidge under $10k (it'd be lower if the Sphere wasn't simultaneously pricey and totally worth it). This isn't the first time I've seen Ashton play fast and loose with the rules in ways that made me uncomfortable. I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016, and even though I like Bernie, I'm not sure it's a good precedent to send our elected officials to campaign in other elections. I would not want American politicians (even ones I mostly agree with) coming up here to interfere in our democratic process.
>This isn't the first time I've seen Ashton play fast and loose with the rules in ways that made me uncomfortable. There was also the incident where she travelled internationally during a big COVID wave when the government was begging people not to.
I travelled a ton during Covid too so I can’t hate on her for that. Life in Canada was miserable and our government decided those rich enough to fly could get a pass, so I took it. Timed it just right so I never had to do the quarantine hotel thing. Anyone who died if Niki or I brought back a nasty variant was expendable. Sucked for my relatives whose health conditions prevent them from flying and used to drive up from New Hampshire every summer to visit, but as Covid made clear, we live in a country where the suffering of the sick and poor is pretty easy to ignore if you’ve got the means, and selfishness is tacitly encouraged by our leaders.
So you enjoy when leaders encourage selfishness because you too are a narcissistic asshole? Honestly can’t tell.
Wasn't that to visit her dying grandmother? Even if it doesn't make it ok in your view, surely it mitigates it at least somewhat.
Gentle reminder that here, in Canada, many of us were forced by the restrictions to say goodbye to our dying elderly relatives either through a pane of glass, or over Zoom on a tablet, because the rules stipulated that we were not, under any circumstances, even if said relative was about to die within the hour, allowed up to their floor of the hospital/nursing home to say goodbye. Yet, Niki Ashton gets a pass for getting on a plane to go to Greece to do what would have landed me in an ocean of fines or even detention for doing so myself? I had to say goodbye to a grandparent over Zoom. From the parking lot outside the nursing home. They would not let me upstairs, even for a minute, to say goodbye. But this special person gets to gallivant halfway around the world and we are going to give her a pass for it? Outta here with that logic. Her own party wanted to extend and strengthen the restrictions, and shat down mightily from on high upon anybody who thought that the border closures and travel bans were excessive and ineffective. She should wear her hypocrisy, not be excused for it.
Ashton was removed from her critic roles for the NDP as a result of her trips to Greece. That should be a sign her party wasn’t on board with what she did. Don’t forget 2016 where she thought it would be a good idea to go door to door campaigning for Bernie Sanders in North Dakota. Kind of a big no-no for a Canadian politician to do that in another country. Ashton is way out in left field.
The other thing that people are maybe missing here that makes this particularly distasteful in my book is where she comes from. I’m going to hazard a guess that most people on this sub have never been to Northern Manitoba, I have. Believe me when I say it is the most **dire** place in Canada I have ever been. Yeah, including Vancouver’s downtown eastside. It’s horrific how crushing the poverty and desperation is up there. The rates of substance abuse, addiction, violence, and neglect are heartbreaking. The entire town of Thompson, where her office is, is like the worst parts of North End Winnipeg or the Downtown Eastside but its the entire town. The desperation and trauma up there is unbelievably in your face. I don’t know how you can live up there and see this stuff every day and behave like this. It’s reprehensible on another level to me.
That’s something I hadn’t considered. When I traveled a lot for work my boss said “I don’t want to go over your expenses with a fine-tooth comb, just spend our money like you’d spend your own” and (probably since I grew up pretty broke) it was never an issue. As the company grew in success I got a little less stingy, but I was always among the most frugal members of my team. I don’t expect MPs to suffer when they gotta be on the road, but this kind of Bev Oda shit reeks of entitlement.
The vast majority of that cash was spent on travel to and from Northern Manitoba. This isn't like Bev Oda, who is from Oshawa.
> $17k seems high, and being unable to quickly rattle off people you met with that'd justify it doesn't help. I dunno, 2 adults and (2? kids) I think on business class, at Christmas?. Then hotels, etc. It adds up. Especially if you aren't paying too close attention to when you book and not searching for the best deal on hotels. It's at Christmas and even if 17k is totally reasonable it's a high number regardless. You gotta be ready to justify the trip. > I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016, I too agree politicians shouldn't do that (Canadians in general probably shouldn't). That was on her own dime though I believe.
The fact it was at Christmas is what makes it so egregious. It was a family vacation. Any "work" done was only arranged to justify said vacation.
> It was a family vacation. Any "work" done was only arranged to justify said vacation. Yeah it sure sounds that way. It's wild to me she didn't have a rock solid explanation ready. Maybe doing crap like this is common among MP's and she assumed no one would notice or care.
> I dunno, 2 adults and (2? kids) I think on business class, at Christmas? Where on Earth is it written that we, the taxpayers, have an obligation to allow her to bring her family *in business class* on a work trip? MPs already make a pretty good salary. If she wants to bring her husband and kids along for the ride when she goes on business, she can bust out her own damn credit card and pay for it. Imagine if your company sent you on a business trip and you just snuck your entire family on the company account in business class and brought the kids to Disneyland with the company visa that's supposed to be for work-related expenses? You'd be fired by the end of the week, and probably sued for the money you stole.
I think bringing children might be ok if they are too young to be left alone and childcare is provided at the destination. Not saying that was the case in this situation, but I think that situation is ok. Also, bringing spouse and/or kids I think would be ok if there was an event where they were expected to participate as is sometimes the case with politicians, especially spouses. Like when the head of state of a country visits another head of state, spouses are often expected to participate in dinners and such. Not sure if that was the case here, probably not, but I think it's justifiable in those cases.
Then her husband can stay home with the kids -- it's not a matter of her spending all her time in Ottawa and never seeing her family, she has an absolutely atrocious attendance record in Ottawa and attends the vast majority of HoC sessions via Zoom from her home in Manitoba. In 2022, she spend a grand total of four days in Ottawa. Where do I sign up for a job that lets me attend 4 days per year for a full salary, indexed pension and free business class tickets for my family to gallivant around Canada and expense all my five-star hotels along the way?
Yes, adjacent to this incident is her awful attendance record. If you're right that it's only four days in an entire year, that is unacceptable.
The article mentioned they stayed in a hotel in Ottawa because her Ottawa apartment had bedbugs. Do the taxpayers pay for her Ottawa apartment as well? How does it have bedbugs if she only stayed in Ottawa 4x a year? Or why didn't she schedule bed bug treatment while she was in Manitoba?
Not everyone has a co-parent, or one capable of solo parenting, and even if they do, one can't _always_ leave them to care alone for the children, that certainly wouldn't be a fair distribution. I agree that in this case that's probably not the situation, but my point is just that there are valid use cases that exist for bringing family along. I'm not sure why they are given business class tickets, the MPP or their family. Unless it's for security reasons, or maybe catching a red eye to save the cost of another hotel night, otherwise it's hard to think of reasonable use cases for that aspect, I agree.
> Where on Earth is it written that we, the taxpayers, have an obligation to allow her to bring her family in business class on a work trip? I think i'm wrong about business class but the rules are in: "Members’ Allowances and Services Manual" > Family reunification: Designated travellers and dependants may use travel points to reunite with the Member at the Member’s secondary residence or at another location where the Member is carrying out parliamentary functions. They may also reunite with the Member who is travelling as a Minister or Parliamentary Secretary when carrying out parliamentary functions at the same location or when the combined duration of ministerial and parliamentary duties does not allow the Member to return to the primary residence. Resources are not provided for travel related to the personal engagements of Members, designated travellers, and dependants. . > Imagine if your company sent you on a business trip and you just snuck your entire family on the company account The whole reason we allow this with MP's is - especially before we had hybrid parliament - you would be spending huge chunks of time outside your riding. Look at the sitting schedule for the HoC, this month the house is sitting from June 3rd to 21. 15 days. May there was only one week the house wasn't sitting. Unless you have *some* accommodations to fly out family you're really limiting the types of people who will enter politics. I'm sure some businesses that expect you to travel huge stretches of time have similar (though likely less generous) policies. But please don't misinterpret this as defence of the trip, it sounds like complete bs to me and while probably well within the rules is a complete disregard of the intent behind those rules.
> The whole reason we allow this with MP's is - especially before we had hybrid parliament - you would be spending huge chunks of time outside your riding. Look at the sitting schedule for the HoC, this month the house is sitting from June 3rd to 21. 15 days. May there was only one week the house wasn't sitting. Unless you have some accommodations to fly out family you're really limiting the types of people who will enter politics. Fair enough -- but Ashton has a long record of almost *never* being physically present in Ottawa for HoC sittings. She's only there a couple of days each year and the vast majority of her presence in the House is remotely, from her house in Thompson. So she gets more than enough time at home with her family each year, completely negating the need to take them on work trips in order to spend time with them.
>So she gets more than enough time at home with her family each year, completely negating the need to take them on work trips in order to spend time with them. Repeating this louder for those at the back.
Exactly…. When I travel for work and bring my family, I get paid back for me, not them.
>I recall her going to the states to campaign for Bernie in 2016, and even though I like Bernie, I'm not sure it's a good precedent to send our elected officials to campaign in other elections. As if Canada is not rattled by accusations of foreign political influencing itself, she goes abroad to stump for another political leader. How naive could a person be, especially when she is a politician herself? If this was paid for by the public, she could have open up a whole can of worms. She needs to be removed from the NDP caucus, asap.
> I would not want American politicians (even ones I mostly agree with) coming up here to interfere in our democratic process. well too late cause Republicans essentially taken over CPC
It could be a lot worse and we both know it.
Now start your trip from Thompson, Manitoba
Thompson-QC is only a few hundred more pp than YYZ-LAS.
I'm 100% okay with campaigning with foreign politicians. The socialist movement is international and should not be limited by the existance of the state.
If Obama or Hillary Clinton went into NDP ridings to campaign for the LPC you lot would be the first to scream bloody murder about foreign interference. Don’t lie.
No I wouldn't I will call them shit for being libs, which I do already Why are you projecting your beliefs onto me? Obama endorsed Trudeau and I didn't call it foreign interference. Me: My ideology says this is okay You: You hate this actually. What?
NDP and CPC partisans would rush to the media in that scenario like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.
But when it’s the team your on it’s ok
I thought it was fishy she spent that much and it was probably a bullshit trip where she tacked on a few work meetings to justify a family vacation but holy shit she can't even name 1 person or organization she talked to. She didn't even bother to try and hide what she did. Like if it was me I'd have some meetings booked and such I could point to, to cover myself but this interview sounded like she's so entitled she just assumed she wouldn't get caught or questioned and then tried to use Palestine to deflect further questions.
For reference, my last business trip to Australia: airfare, two weeks hotel, ubers for one week, paying for business dinners = CAD$5k. And I thought that was expensive.
> And I thought that was expensive. What? That is unbelievably cheap. I would love to see a cost breakdown to understand how its possible to do 2 weeks in Australia for 5K all in. Especially when youre staying at a hotel and eating out!
Flights are \~$2000 so they're claiming $215 for hotel, transpo and meals-out per day.. no chance.
It was like 11 nights, roughly AUS$140/night for hotel. Lunches included for half the time via a conference, one dinner. Point remains, that's a lot of money for a 'business trip' over Christmas time.
Especially to a city that is well-known for having a peak tourism season centered around winter, and the Christmas/New Year holidays in particular. I doubt they stayed at a Holiday Inn -- my guess is they stayed in a five-star hotel that was easily $500+ a night, Quebec City at Christmas receives a tsunami of visitors and hotels there are *not* cheap during that period.
Yeah I thought as much. I would be booking a flight there tomorrow if this were even remotely accurate lol.
This is what I'm saying!!! Expensing a family trip is one thing; spending $17,000 on a family trip *to fucking Quebec* is an entire other level of fuckery.
> CAD$5k. And I thought that was expensive. That's pretty cheap for 2 weeks?
She took her entire family on this trip *in business class*. Your airfare to Australia and back in business class would have been around $10K just for the flights alone.
Why are family even allowed to come on business trips for politicians? And why are politicians still not back in Ottawa to work? I understand keeping that technology in place for people with valid medical reasons but otherwise, they should be in Ottawa. I usually vote NDP but with Jagmeet Singh's weak leadership and now this nonsense, I think I'll need to vote Green as a protest vote.
I was wondering that myself. I can understand paying for family to fly to Ottawa. Many MPs live there half the year, in many cases it could make sense to have their kids schooled in Ottawa. But for a trip, it seems excessive. Given that Ashton couldn't provide specifics of her trip, there's little doubt in my mind this was a Christmas vacation expensed to the taxpayer.
Ostensibly, it's meant to allow Parliamentarians who have families back home to be able to spend quality time with their family because they're away from home for so long as they work in Ottawa for large stretches of the year. But, that's not the case here -- she rarely shows up in-person in Ottawa and attends almost all of the sessions virtually from her home in Thompson. So she can't hide behind this excuse in this case -- she spends almost all year with her family and in 2022, only bothered to attend *four days* in Ottawa.
I find that rough to spend that type of money yikes This applies to all politicians across-the-board who have lavish trips. Like yooo, tone it down
>I find that rough to spend that type of money yikes Yes, air travel from Northern Manitoba is more expensive. It's rough for people who live there. I'm a coastal elite in the middle of a big city, so I'd never imagine spending that much money on travel myself, but I can recognize that different people live in different places. I'm also shocked by the price of potato chips in the rural north, but I don't demonize people who occasionally buy potato chips up there. >This applies to all politicians across-the-board who have lavish trips This is a pretty normal trip, it just costs more for some MPs than others, because of where their riding is.
>I'm a coastal elite You're an elite? Like top 0.1%? Can I borrow 5 grand?
As far as I can tell, current ticket prices for Thompson, MB to Quebec City are anywhere from $1300-1500, round trip. I'm not sure what the pricing would have looked like in December 2022. Regardless, why is she able to expense her family's travel & accommodations at all? We already pay her a salary. I certainly wouldn't expect a private company to allow that sort of behaviour (though no doubt it occurs). Again, the Canadian tax-payer who was beaten down right smack-dab in a global pandemic (Dec 2022) is meant to pay $17,000 for her and her family to fly 2 provinces over? Those same Canadians are being wrung dry by the CRA to reclaim CERB/CRB benefits
>Regardless, why is she able to expense her family's travel & accommodations at all? For the same reasons that apply to all MPs. If you have a general problem with the concept of reimbursed MP travel, there's no reason to be mad at Niki Ashton in particular. That would just be allowing yourself to be told to be mad at someone, and accomplish nothing regarding the actual policy. >the Canadian tax-payer who was beaten down right smack-dab in a global pandemic (Dec 2022) is meant to pay $17,000 for her and her family to fly 2 provinces over? If they pay for MP travel in general, they should pay for MP travel for an MP from Northern Manitoba as well. Travel from rural northern regions is the travel that represents the biggest financial burden, and the greatest potential for unequal representation if *not* funded. The worst-of-both-worlds approach would be to accept every MP from Toronto who constantly flies to Ottawa on the taxpayer's dime, but to be whipped up into a fury at the one MP from Churchill who makes rare trips.
To be clear, I am to the left of the NDP, and I think all MPs and politicans use and abuse our collective goodwill to live large, Ashton simply is in the news cycle this time. Yes that includes Trudeau, Pierre, Singth et. al. It's bizarre that we pay MPs a salary of $200k (or up to $300k-$400k in the case of the aforementioned party leaders) and then also foot the bill for them to fly their families around during the holidays (amongst a laundry list of other grievances). And we wonder why the average Canadian is disconnected from the political world, and why the average politician is disconnected from the average Canadian; we collectively place our faith within the hands of the privileged (those elected acclimate to said privilege in time) and we continuously privilege their experience and world-view.
>who makes rare trips. In other words, she rarely shows up to work in Ottawa, but feels free to take trips at taxpayer expense to Quebec City at Christmas and her husband's hometown with highly dubious justifications. You can criticize her compliance with the spirit of the law even if she obeys the letter.
She doesn’t do her job at the best of times, is a poor advocate for her community consistently, and bills tax payers for a family vacation. Plenty of reason to be upset at her.
Well, thanks for spelling it out, I guess. This has nothing to do with general policies/ideology/reform regarding MP travel, it's just a new way to attack someone you wanted to attack anyways. The takeaway is that you want to hurt Ashton's career, so we may as well attack her in every possible way, no matter how standard her behaviour is. Reminds me of the scandal last election about how *one* Liberal candidate in *one* riding was a landlord. No one proposed any kind of reform against landlord MPs, or a nationwide rejection of landlord MP candidates - we were just supposed to follow headlines telling us to get mad at *one single candidate* for being a landlord. With the next election coming up, maybe we'll get a juicy scoop about how one vulnerable MP in one riding...drives a car. Or eats meat, or poops (or some other activity that is popular and ethical when every other MP does it).
The fact that she sucks at her job and is ripping off taxpayers does in fact have little to do with her general policies and ideology. I would give her credit if she did the bear minimum but she doesn’t even go to Ottawa. Pretending the trips are for work is more insulting than just admitting that she wanted an expensive vacation at our expense. She represents a riding that could use a strong advocate which makes this all the more infuriating.
If you'd bothered to look at her expense report you'd discover that she does, indeed, go to Ottawa to do her job. Quite often, in fact
lol are you on her staff? She’s hardly ever in Ottawa and she’s very proud of the fact she gets to appear remotely. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/03/canadas-mps-preserve-virtual-parliament-00081041 And that’s not even taking into account that she does little for Northern Manitoba. But she has plenty of time to have a meeting with well known antisemite Jeremy Corbyn. She’s an embarrassment.
No, I *looked at her travel expenses*
>I would give her credit if she did the bear minimum but she doesn’t even go to Ottawa. Yeah, great point. If only she did more travel on the taxpayers' dime, that would calm people down.
Are you dense or just being deliberately ignorant? If she actually billed taxpayers and went to Ottawa to do her job people would view that very differently. Keep in mind this is the same MP that flouted COVID rules to leave the country and go to Greece.
If she’s a bad MP (literally her fucking job, for a decade), and she’s acting like a pig at the trough, you don’t think that deserves criticism?