Trudeau’s Indo-Pacific trip cost $223k in airplane meals
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Summary
In this episode of Alberta Monday Maven, we talk with Chris Sims, Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Lindsay Wilson, Alberta's Taxpayers' Federation, about the upcoming election. We talk about the Nanshi vs. Kenney campaign, and what we can learn from it.
Transcript
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Anyway, let's turn to our Alberta Monday Maven, Chris Sims, the Alberta Director for the Canadian
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Taxpayers Federation. Just bouncing off of that discussion we had there with Lindsay Wilson,
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Chris, from a taxpayer perspective, what's your big concern or thing that you're looking for with
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Nancy? Yeah, our big concern clearly is about the amount of high taxes that went through the city
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of Calgary and the amount of spending also. So here in the province of Alberta, we now just recently
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have an excellent law which was passed along with balanced budget legislation, and that keeps our
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rate of spending increases below the rate of inflation plus population growth. That sounds
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super nerdy and wonky and boring, but if they had done this a generation ago, Andrew, we'd have like
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300 billion dollars in the bank right now with a B. That's not including resource revenue windfalls,
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that's just like prudent spending. So we're pretty concerned about that. So I'm in the middle of doing
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a deep dive into what Mayor Nanshi did when he was at the helm of the city of Calgary. Now there's a
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little bit of a blip there in 2014 where they drastically changed their accounting practices,
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which is right in the middle of his tenure. So it's a little bit harder to scale, but that's the main
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thing we're looking at is how much taxes went up and how much spending went up when he was in charge
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and how we can potentially compare that when he could potentially be the NDP Premier of Alberta
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someday. So definitely something to keep an eye on. And the last little scuttlebutt rumor I heard
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is that he might be looking at Lethbridge West, which is not my riding provincially, but it's like
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over there. It's across the coulees, across the bridge. And that's, of course, because a very
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prominent MLA Shannon Phillips within the NDP has stepped down there. So there's going to be an
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open seat. She was the one who left and said conservatives were too mean. And that's why
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she was getting out of politics, right? Yes. And I was surprised there. I thought she was going to run
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for NDP leader. But then she said conservatives are too mean. And then through her support behind
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Nanshi. So now things are really kind of shaping up to be quite a skirmish. And it actually happens to be
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here in Lethbridge, which works out great, because this means I can be at all of his press conferences.
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I'm sure he'll be happy to see me. If that alone doesn't keep Nanshi out of Lethbridge,
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I don't know what will. Explain this to me, because federally, Lethbridge is a conservative
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stronghold. And provincially, it's like the blip of orange in southern Alberta. How the heck does that
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happen? Yeah, great question. So federally, that's, of course, Rachel Thomas is writing. And so
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federally, it includes all of the city of Lethbridge. And this big honking swath of rural area,
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including Warner County down to Sterling. I was just there last night. So that's a bit,
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you know, very, very dark blue conservative. But provincially speaking, there's a riding boundary
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that we're basically we have this little kind of depression where it's like a big river valley.
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It's called the Cooleys. They're ancient dinosaur bones, actually, you can dig for them. But it's this
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depression. And so that's the west side. That's where the university is. That's where all the profs live
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over there. That's where all the students have all their housing and stuff. And so that's actually
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why you'll often see the election date bump back and forth, depending on when the school year is
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ending at the university. So yeah, that is why that's a bit more orange over there. But to be fair,
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when Jason Kenney first won as premier, I think the NDP won there by like 240 votes,
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like a weekend of door knocking. So it's not hard orange. And if you dig dig way, way down there,
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beside the dinosaur bones, it's actually the NDP plan to balance the budget, believe it or not.
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It is just as fossilized. And actually, I think the dinosaur bones are a little bit fresher.
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Let's talk about something you don't want to eat dinosaur bones. So I can't do a natural segue to
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this. But I was on, so I went to Winnipeg last week, as I just shared, and I was flying on Air
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Canada. And I got to the airport at Pearson Airport, and everything was fine. Then my flight gets
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cancelled. And this was at four o'clock. Well, first, it was delayed. So I was supposed to leave
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at four. It got delayed to 545. And then it got cancelled. And I was speaking the next day at noon.
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And they had said, Oh, well, we can book you on a flight that leaves Toronto at noon tomorrow,
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and goes to Montreal. And then when you're in Montreal, you can get to Winnipeg by, you know,
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sometimes next year. And there were like five other flights going to Winnipeg before then,
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and every single one of them was full. So they're like, so Air Canada says, Well, we can put you on
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WestJet. And I said, Okay, fine, do that. They're like, Oh, I actually can't, but book it yourself
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and send us a receipt. So I did. And all that was left at WestJet was, you know, a middle seat on row
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like, you know, 157. And which I took and went to Winnipeg and everything was fine. It was not like the
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high flying experience that you get if you fly with Justin Trudeau to a global summit. Tell me
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what was on the menu for the PMO and the delegation that went with him to the G20.
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Yeah, this is really bad. So I'm going to laugh through a little bit of this. But I wanted to
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give a preface. I'm laughing because otherwise you'd cry. I know this gets depressing. I know the
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government blows your money taxpayers. So I'm not laughing at you. I'm trying to mock the Prime
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Minister for being such an elitist out of touch dingbat when it comes to wasting your money.
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So folks might remember this big long overseas trip that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his
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entourage went on. The entourage varied from around 72 ish people all the way down to 37 ish people,
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give or take on depending on which leg of the journey they were on. They hopscotched over through
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Indonesia. They went to India, all that fun stuff. Now, you might remember a couple of years ago,
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about a year and a half ago, when the Governor General went on this Mideast junket trip for some
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random reason. There's no reason for the Governor General to leave Canada. So she went over there
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and they blew about $100,000 on airplane food. Now, back then, the bureaucrats seemed to forget where
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the receipts were, even when they were being questioned in committee. Turns out the Taxpayers
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Federation had the receipts. That's where folks might remember they were eating things like beef
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Wellington, right? Like super fancy. Now, this is the issue, Andrew. They promised, Pinky swore,
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that they wouldn't do this again. That they realized this was out of touch with regular Canadians.
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They were not going to eat high on the hog while flying around. So fast forward, now the Trudeau
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government goes flying around. They doubled it. So they blew around $220,000, thereabouts,
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on airplane food. The food included things like beef brisket, lamb shanks, this fancy sort of
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cheesecake that I can't even pronounce, which has like a pistachio crumble or something attached to it.
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Pistachio brittle. Sorry. I'm sorry. I am a peasant.
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Michelin-starred chef that the liberals hired to do that menu.
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This is it, exactly. And so it is so much money, Andrew. And also, there was a little detail in
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there that made me gag. Apparently, the Prime Minister's dinner had to be served on China plate
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and not just regular dishes like the rest of us. So I'm highlighting this, of course,
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because we are dealing with massive inflation, like a 40-something year high in inflation.
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We are dealing with runaway budget spending. This government has no plans to ever balance the
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budget. We've got about a $40 billion deficit. They've doubled the debt. What we pay in the GST
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across Canada is now our interest payment on this debt. We've got food bank lines that wrap around
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the buildings. These guys are not getting the message. They're still flying around eating
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lamb shanks off China plate. Shout out to Tristan Hopper at the National Post because he sat there
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and did the math. I can picture him. He figured out that this is equivalent to nine bathtubs
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full of Bev Oda level orange juice. I did a more rudimentary math calculation because as I
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understand it, on one of the flights or one of the legs of the flight, let me just pull up my
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numbers here. For that one particular flight, the catering bill was $85,000. Now, as I understand
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it, there were different numbers of passengers depending on the leg of the journey. The maximum
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was 72 passengers. So let's assume that that was the flight that had the $85,000 bill. That is $1,180
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and 55 cents per person. For that one part of the trip.
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Yeah, for one leg of the flight. I'm like, how much do you need to eat or how much do you need to
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charge for food to rack up that much on a flight? I don't know how long the flight was. I'm trying to
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think of how long a flight would have to be for me to eat and drink $1,200 worth of food and drink.
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And I'm a big guy. I don't even think I could do that readily.
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That's it. This is it. And I'm glad you pointed it out that way because even try to use regular
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brain math. How do you do that? Over a thousand bucks in one day? That's a lot of those WestJet
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pretzels that I had come to think of it. Bro, that is like lobster with saffron sauce
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and champagne you and I probably don't know the origin of. That is a crazy amount of spending.
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And it is so out of touch. Like, I think, I don't know if it was Tristan as well,
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but they figured out that was like 11,000 of the fanciest Subway sandwiches you could imagine.
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And I'm talking the roast chicken. Not the $5 footlongs. Those are like the full, okay.
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No, this is not your Wednesday special. Yeah, one of the menu items, pan-fried beef tenderloin
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with port wine sauce. And the beef brisket came with mashed parley potatoes with truffle oil.
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Truffle oil. Yes. See, that's going to run you some dough.
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When was the last time you were served that on an airplane?
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One of a, a friend of a friend of mine was on a flight once. I think it was Air Canada. And
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they had said, you know, do you want something to eat? And he said, what are my options?
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And the flight attendant said yes or no. Okay. That's a pretty good line.
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That's what you usually get when you're traveling by air. Yes, exactly. It's like that.
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Actually, even then I don't even think yes is an option typically. I think it's different. It's no.
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Exactly. Exactly. Which kind of dry pretzels do you want? And this is what we're pointing out here.
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And some people might be saying, oh, well, they're the prime minister. What do you want them to eat?
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You know, some, you know, pork rinds out of a bag like I do when I used to try to ride the greyhound
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with my grandma. No. But they could at least try to keep things within reason. And spending more
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than a thousand dollars a person for one leg of your trip while being insisting on eating off China
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plate while you are bankrupting the country is not within reason. So I'll give you good examples here.
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So back in the day when Preston Manning became the leader of the opposition and leader of the
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Reform Party of Canada, before he came along, it was standard operating procedure for every member
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of parliament to fly the equivalent of first class. So whatever the terminology was back in the late
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80s, early 90s, they always flew that way. Preston looked at the bill. He's like, why? Why are you
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flying first class all the way? You're flying coach. So every member of parliament within the Reform Party
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had to fly coach. Back earlier than that, in the 1950s, 1960s, W.A.C. Bennett, very famous premier
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of British Columbia, used to make his staff come to him to ask if they could make a long distance
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phone call. For real. Because it was incurring cost to the taxpayer. And so if you actually start
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paying attention to not eating lamb shanks while you're eating off China plate and flying around
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the world for some reason, while you're bankrupting the country, you will suddenly start paying
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attention to the big stuff, too. And it might lead them to, I don't know, balancing the budget,
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not being tone deaf, not realizing that their people are really struggling to afford basic groceries
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right now, like struggling to afford hamburger. Maybe you shouldn't go jet around the world and fly
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like this. Just hats off to the media to both alternative and mainstream. They did pick this up,
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and I'm glad they did. Because it lets people really understand where the money's going.
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Yeah. And whenever you talk about expenditures for MPs or salaries for MPs, you always end up in
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this situation and that it's hard to put the optimal number. It's hard to come out and say,
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what's the optimal salary? But we can all look at this as reasonable people and say, it's not this.
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Yes. It's a lot lower than this. It's a lot less than this. Well, great work on this as always.
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We'll talk to you next Monday. Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Keep up the fight.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.