09.22.2016 08:49 AM

Tough day to be a Grit?

No shit.

I’m on the Adler-Kinsella Show on SiriusXM later today, and I know Charles won’t let me bob and weave about:

  1. The consultant.
  2. The move.
  3. The polls. (And polls.)
  4. The birthplace.

So, let me offer up my preliminary talking points on each problem:

  1. The consultant: Sorry, but I’m not going to defend it.  And I’m told the $3 million isn’t the total figure – it’s a lot more.  This is unacceptable, obviously.
  2. The move: It was within the rules, but the price tag(s) seem pretty high. Why, I do not know.  We can’t compare to Harper-era moving costs – those files are mysteriously “sealed.” More facts needed.
  3. The polls: Christy Clark has shown Kathleen Wynne that smart policy, and smart politics, never hurts.  Helps, even. There’s time to make some changes.
  4. The birthplace: I thought Monsef was pretty candid, and pretty self-critical with Bob Fife.  That said, someone told the President of the United States a falsehood, which he then put in a big speech.  Not good.

Now, pray for me with Charles.  This is one of those days you wish you didn’t have a regularly-scheduled radio show to do!

11 Comments

  1. Pierre D. says:

    Not sure about bringing up Christy Clark. She’s generally loathed in B.C. for everything from failure to address Fentanyl propagation to sending her son to an uppity school on taxpayer dime (then hiring someone to write a bio about it…) and just being largely corrupt. She’s basically Wynne-West, and they should throw her out.

    The moves, I couldn’t care less about. The Tories have no new policy to bring forth so they are nickle and diming.

    Birthplace stuff reeks of Kelly Leitch “Old Stock” stuff, very creepy and I won’t even address that.
    Consultant thing hasn’t even surfaced in news cycle around here, so I’ll get indignant when it does.

    • BillBC says:

      “She’s generally loathed in B.C.” By the Left. She’s tied in the polls with the NDP, which suggests the loathing isn’t too wide….

  2. Jon Powers says:

    Her birthplace was only relevant when it was used as a tool to fulfill a narrative to help her get elected and put into a cabinet position. However, any questioning of that narrative, now that it has been proven to be false, is obviously racist and bigoted. The editors at the globe should be ashamed.

  3. John says:

    Wrt the Move – when I started my job in the PS about 20 years ago, I was packed and moved at taxpayer expense (completely normal practice) from my student townhouse in Guelph to Ottawa and the cost was around 10 K. Now that was a long time ago and there were no real estate or legal costs etc., just packing and moving. So I’m not sure if that price tag is way out of whack or not.

    • Michael Bluth says:

      Re: moving costs.

      The biggest chunk of Butts’ moving costs were real estate costs. i.e. full re-imbursement of commissions.

      That one is the toughest to justify. Spoke to someone on HR for a pretty big company about it. “Corporate Canada” standard is to cover a portion of agent fees to a limit. Exceptions are made for senior exec Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer. Is Butts really that senior?

      It still stinks to Joe and Jane Front Porch. Far bigger in magnitude than Duffy’s piggishness.

      If people were wondering when the honeymoon would end, that time appears to be about now.

  4. godot10 says:

    Butts and Telford have over a half million dollar tax free capital gain on the sale of their Toronto homes. Ottawa home prices are far less than Toronto home prices. They are essentially asking the people of Canada to pay for their Ontario land transfer tax, a tax all ordinary people in Ontario have to pay on the disposition of their homes, even if there is not a massive capital gain. It is not something extraordinary. What Justin Trudeau is enabling for his two top aides is tax and free avoidance, pure and simple. There is nothing extraordinary in these taxes and fees that ordinary citizens of Ontario don’t have to pay, and there was no hardship incurred because of the massive capital gains.

    One set of rules for “friends of Justin”. Another set of rules for everyone else.

    As for Monsef, the next time she pontificates on Canadian values and democracy, I am going to puke.

    Wynne is pretty much the most corrupt politician in Canada…so nothing that comes out about Wynne and money surprises me. It is just one thing after another.

    And what about Mourneau and his tax avoidance with Bahamian tax shelters

    • Vancouverois says:

      They are essentially asking the people of Canada to pay for their Ontario land transfer tax,

      Asking the people of Canada? Not even. As I understand it, the only person they asked to sign off on it was Trudeau himself.

  5. Charlie says:

    1) I’m not plugged into Ontario politics, but what I do know is that David Herle is the magic man and can make anything happen. Thats all I have to say about that.

    2) Like I said in the other post: its fucking egregious and despite being a Liberal myself, I cannot support such an inappropriate practice for senior political staff.

    3) Polls are nice, but they don’t matter if you can’t do something with them. The NDP proved that last year.

    4) Who gives a flying fuck where she’s from: frankly, it doesn’t make her any more qualified for her position. I’ll admit, even as a Trudeau supporter, I can’t stand the constant praise thats showered down on Monsef for being a refugee from Afghanistan. Firstly, she’s stupid for letting it define her because her responsibility as Cabinet Minister has nothing to do with her personal history. She got swept up in the love-in until she found out its not in fact true.

    That said, who gives a damn?

    As far as the laymen is concerned she’s still a refugee from Afghanistan. If a child is born in a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey, that doesn’t make that child Turkish. Monsef’s story still holds up as far as I’m concerned — but she needs to get the hell over it because that has nothing to do with her election to Parliament.

  6. Lance says:

    Hey! No one can accuse you of dodging the tough ones walking out onto the practice range. Props. “Once more unto the breach”, right?

  7. Maps Onburt says:

    Warren writes: “The move: It was within the rules, but the price tag(s) seem pretty high. Why, I do not know. We can’t compare to Harper-era moving costs – those files are mysteriously “sealed.” More facts needed.”

    Well acccording to the Globe, Harper capped moving expenses for his staff at $30K. Telford and Butts have line items bigger than that. It was Trudeau himself who penned the open letter to Stephen Harper demanding that he fire the staffers involved and stating “his evidence is raising extremely serious questions about your judgment”. Well Mr Trudeau. What about YOUR judgement since YOU personally approved these egregious expense claims ???

    From the CBC, CTV, Toronto Star…. crickets.

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