Most Canadians know Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is fond of flitting around the globe in RCAF jets, attending global leadership conferences at which he can profess his commitment to reducing carbon emission (from, for instance, flying around in private jets).
Thanks to the National Post’s Bryan Passifiume, though, we mere ground-dwellers have a better grasp of Trudeau’s jet-setting addiction.
Between mid-February and mid-March, our “green” leader flew in RCAF executive jets 17 times, roughly once every other day.
Ten of those flights (nearly 60%) were under an hour’s duration. Trudeau seems especially fond of the 22-minute flight between Ottawa and Montreal.
On St. Patrick’s Day, Trudeau even ordered his jet to come pick him up from an appearance in Waterloo, Ont. (flight time approximately 20 minutes), rather than inconveniencing himself with the hour-long drive to Toronto where his jet was parked.
Better Canadian taxpayers be out of pocket than His Holiness, Canada’s 23rd prime minister, have to ride in the back of an – ugh – limo or a – shriek – Chevy Suburban, accompanied by a phalanx of motorcycles and police SUVs.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
The humiliation of having to take ground transportation would be too much.
Not only does Trudeau’s exec-jet habit show what an eco-hypocrite he is, it also belies a princely attitude. These flight records show Trudeau is not affected by the very policies he imposes on the rest of Canadians.
On Saturday, the federal carbon tax went up by nearly a third. That is definitely going to increase the price you have to pay to fly to your niece’s wedding this summer or send your kids back to university across the country. Maybe it will raise airfares by just enough that you’ll decide to ride out winter in Canada next year because you just can’t afford a ticket to somewhere warm.
But not the Prince of Papineau. (Papineau is the name of Trudeau’s Montreal riding.)
Trudeau never has to trouble himself about the grotty details of life in the middle class.
No wonder he’s all in favour of draconian measures to shut down the oil and gas industry and make fossil fuels unaffordable. So what if his mandate to make electric vehicles mandatory by 2035 prices a lot of low-income Canadians out of the car market completely? His grand ideas will never eliminate his job or curtail his lifestyle.
Trudeau is also aided in his royal, two-faced governing style by his palace guard in Canadian media, including the CBC and Toronto Star.
In 2012, Conservative minister Bev Oda was hounded from office by the national media for charging $665 a night for a room at London’s Savoy Hotel and downing a $16 orange juice.
Why does similar outrage not cling to Trudeau?
Not only are Trudeau’s flying habits of little interest to his media pals, his $8,000-a-night stay at London’s Corinthia Hotel piques little interest, too.
Wait!? $8,000 a night!? Wasn’t the room $6,000?
Well, $6,000 is what Trudeau’s flunkies at Global Affairs Canada claimed. But they seem to have used an exchange rate that never existed. Using the official exchange rate for the days Trudeau stayed in the River Suite (and the hotel’s posted rate for the butler-staffed rooms), the price in Canadian dollars would be closer to $8,000.
Given the way media and Liberal voters let Trudeau skate past his hypocrisy on the environment, on the carbon tax and affordability issues for ordinary Canadians, and shamelessly staying in a hotel suite that cost as much for six nights ($48,000 total) as many Canadians make in a year, it’s no wonder he’s become so full of himself.
Although I would argue he had a running start at being full of himself when he came to office.
Post a Comment