Juno News - January 02, 2021The hypocrisy of Canada's politicians
Episode Stats
Words per minute
138.36978
Summary
Canadians are tired of politicians lying to their constituents about where they are and what they are doing, especially when it comes to their social media accounts. We have seen politicians post holiday greetings to constituents from all over the world, including St. Bart's in the Caribbean, Alberta's Minister of Municipal Affairs, Tracy Allard, filmed a holiday message in a warm sweater and with a large Christmas tree in the background, then she promptly boarded a flight to Hawaii.
Transcript
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Happy New Year. I truly hope this will be a better year than 2020. Good riddance to that one.
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I, like many, if not most of you, spent a quiet New Year's Eve with my lady. We didn't do the
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champagne thing, but we had some nice wine and watched some movies. Such is life in 2020 with
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the COVID pandemic. The news on New Year's seemed to focus on hypocritical politicians.
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Not that that is a new thing, but it is the breeziness of this hypocrisy that has shocked
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and angered Canadians. First, we had Ontario MPP Rod Phillips, who was also Finance Minister.
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He tweeted to his constituents from St. Bart's in the Caribbean. On at least one occasion,
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he even wore a winter sweater and recorded it in front of a fireplace to give the illusion that
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he was still in Ontario. That sweater must have been awful warm in St. Bart's. We don't know for
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sure that Premier Doug Ford was aware of his trip in advance, but when the media got a sniff of it,
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Ford ordered Phillips home early. Phillips promptly apologized publicly, and by the time he got back
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to Ontario, he resigned. Out of guilt or was he pushed, we just don't know. Then the revelation
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started to come fast and furious. Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs, Tracy Allard, filmed a holiday
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message on Twitter in a warm sweater and with a large Christmas tree in the background. Then she
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promptly boarded a flight to Hawaii. I should add that Alberta was under limited lockdown restrictions
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at the time and mask mandates. Regulations that she helped put in place and helped to pass. She would
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be hard pressed to plead ignorance. She even tweeted to her constituents from a beach in Hawaii. Her boss,
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Premier Jason Kenney, claims he didn't know about her trip to the Aloha State, but like Doug Ford,
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when he learned, he ordered her to return. She was out of the country from December 19 to December 26.
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Apparently, it's too dangerous to eat at a local restaurant, but take a 10-hour flight to a tropical
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paradise and eat at all the restaurants you want, and that is fine. Not to be outdone, MLA for lesser slave
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lake. Pat Wren posted a Christmas message from an adventure park in Cancun, but it didn't end there.
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Manitoba NDP MP Nikki Ashton tweeted out a stay home message, and then for some reason after the
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Christmas message, Ashton hopped a plane and traveled to Greece to visit her grandmother.
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Inexplicably, she admitted that on Twitter, her social awareness seems very limited.
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Ashton lost her critic position within caucus. The NDP statement said Canadians expect their
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representatives to quote, lead by example, unquote. Then on Friday night, Post Media confirmed Calgary
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Pagan MLA Tanya Fehr and Calgary Klein MLA Jeremy Nixon each traveled abroad in December.
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They both went to the U.S. Fehr also tweeted out holiday greetings to her constituents,
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right before boarding a plane to quote, visit her sister, unquote, in Las Vegas.
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She has since admitted her transgression and apologized on Twitter. Politicians and members
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of the entitled class being hypocritical is nothing new, but these recent examples are egregious.
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Or, as my True North colleague Andrew Lawton said yesterday, quote, if public officials don't
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have to follow the rules, why do we have to, end quote. Good question.