If this was the real world, foreign trips for spouses would attract a T4A slip that would be taxed at the end of the year. Why are MP’s wifes/spouses exempt.

The example of those trips to Taiwan leaves many questions. Why didn’t these officials at least travel together and have one meeting with the Taiwanese officials? Why did the spouses need to attend? It should have been a working trip not for spouses to enjoy and tour Taiwan.

Spouses of executives in the private sector don’t generally get to tag along for free on business trips, so I fail to see why we taxpayers should have to foot the bill for these public sector jaunts. Many of these trips by MPs are of questionable value in the first place, and adding spouses to them does nothing whatsoever to enhance their value.

Hey you have goty to look at this from the spouses point of view …..Basically politicians can’t be trusted …..therefore they go to a foreign country and what happens in that country stays in that country!!!!!!! and the spouses are there for moral and physical support, not to come back home with some untreatable disease…
so TAX their ASS for the whole trip…if you want, that will end up putting tax dollars back for the next trip and vicious cicle will continue. What we have to look at is WHAT WAS THE TRIP FOR?— HOW DOES IT BENEFIT CANADA”???? If there is no feasible answer….disallow the cost as expenses and it comes out of pocket…..SINCE THEIR SALARIES COME FROM TAXES ….YOU FIGURE IT OUT ….YOUR DAMMED IF YOU DO …DAMMED IF YOU DON’T…!!!
SYNOPSIS… CLEARLY THIS IS A TRUST ISSUE ON OUR PART AND THE SPOUSES PART,,,\

Politicians feeding at the public trough. So what else is new?

What a ripoff … These guys should at least pay for their wives

The NCC should seek “higher ground” in its challenges of both the political process and its politicians. This sort of question carries clear, negative implications–that these trips are unnecessary and that spouses should not “be privileged” to attend “at no personal expense”. The results cannot avoid reflecting this imposed bias.

This lightweight questioning produces uninteresting and predictable response. Surely the NCC can rise above such pettiness and yet attain its “watchdog” goals.

Criminal is the only word I can come up with! No accountability.
Were you aware that about two years before Cretian retire he increased his and MP’s salaries dramatically. Were you also aware that their pension is based on an average of their last two years of income?
If this was in the corporate rhelm it would be in court!
Ralph Earle

More politicians at the trough and unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One would think they could at least come up with some more credible story for the trips. I would like a trip to Cabo San Lucas for a few weeks to discover how the Mexicans perceive the type of rip off our MP’s perpetrate on us Canadians.

we feel this is not a good use of can. tax dollars. especialy at this time. we will consider this as negative action at the next election

What needs moderating? It may be sarcastic but do they deserve better?

Even Conservatives are partaking in this game. Cmon guys, This is why we all become so cynical with politicians. You are concerned how Taiwan sees Canada? Well you should be conserned about how I perceive YOU!

As I look at my stack of bills, and decide which ones I can afford to pay today, reading about this really helps with work on my ulcer…. who said “YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION !!”
thanks, I feel slightly better…

Canada has tolerated provincial premiers engaging in international relations for years, for example Lucien Bouchard’s overatures to France. Many of our leaders set the example like Pierre Trudeau claiming an $80,000.00 per year tax exemption for his 10 year old son as a “diplomatic representative of Canada” (this was reported on CBC News) or Paul Martin taking free trips from the Irving family when the government was giving grants to Irving Oil.

Elected members who are not involved in either foreign affairs or trade portfolios can destroy months of painstaking negotiations. A law should be passed to limit foreign relations to senior government staff and government ministers appointed to these portfolios. All other interested parties ie. premiers could be permitted to join official delegations.

The last thing we need is a self-appointed, unaccountable, loose cannon diplomacy …Nancy Pelosi or Jimmy Carter style.

We should look beyond this expense question to the fact that our parliamentarians are considering the need for the realignment of constituency boundaries that would result in adding more than 20 new members. The annual cost of each is in the millions so taxpayers should be questioning this idea before it is too late. From what we read about the conduct of affairs in Ottawa most backbenchers serve primarily to vote as instructed by the PM. Individual taxpayers have very little to gain from adding more chairs in the Commons.

Preston Manning once said,”When elected politicians arrive in Ottawa, they are immediately in danget of catching Ottawa Fever.
Daryl Kramp, former Reformer and now Conservative MP, should have paid attention.
Going on taxpayer-paid-junkets is a typical sympton of Ottawa fever.

Hopefully by exposing him, the NCC may cure him of it.

Keep up the good work,

Evert Vroegh

This is part of the entitlement culture of government officials when they get comfortable in government. I am sorry to say that the Conservatives are showing disregard for the public purse. (maybe not to the degree of the Liberals, YET.) Government can be only as good as the people that form it. Remember people are sinful by nature and therefore greedy and self-serving. We “Public” need to be very diligent to weed out people who get careless in their attitude toward OUR money that we entrust to them.

There is lots of scope for your effort in this area , it can be useful to the taxpayers and swing a few votes at the next election. Keep up the good work.

These trips are unnecessary and simply a holiday at our expense. We are definitely the ones doing the working for the politicians. I am going to write to Daryl Kramp and his wife to express my disgust. No point writing to a Liberal or NDP because they think they are better than the Canadian taxpayer and just wouldn’t have the brains to understand who is supposed to be doing the work.

Are these trips necessary? We need a watchdog on this type of ‘holiday’. I question why one of these trips were necessary .. but three .. to Taiwan .. NO!

And should the spouses of elected officials be privileged to these trips at no personal expense? Definitely not. It’s seldom done in business circles. As President of a small Public company .. 3 times to Australia .. I paid for my wife’s travel (she stayed in my hotel free of course) .. she also took her turn manning our booth in the trade show. We observed the same rules as any employee of the company who went on these trips. This ‘government privilege’ stuff is disgusting.

Could not two MPs go at same time to get info for others. Spouses do not and should not travel at government expense, except say on a state visit.

My wife and I cannot afford to take a trip to Asia so why should we be helping to pay for a politician’s holiday?

Time to resurrect the “pigs in the trough”campaign.

Is your blog page secure or am I giving away my email address? Todays information involved travelling to taiwan. At these low prices maybe the bill submitted was for the MP alone and the wife paid her own way. Your information is not very complete.

I like the idea of a free trip. Make it one way, and don’t let them back.

I am in favour. The next time I go on a holidayI would like some Government department to pay my wife’s expenses.

the problem with most canadians and a result the problem s of canada are ignorance.we can learn from the rest of the world.what we think is great here is better somewhere else.sure,canadians travel on holidays but really dont learn that much about other economies.if these trips resulted in the addition of 1 brain cell in these politions,then it is worth it.the travel amounts you stated are not outrageous.lets all learn what we can from the rest of the world because we really need to.

Truck drivers have to pay for their own out of pocket expenses (meals and motels)while traveling on business in and out of the country.
No per diems for labour.