Trudeau vacations on Muslim leader's private island

[Veovis]

I guess it doesn't matter that the two of them have known each other for over 40 years? privileged families have privileged friends...it's odd how the right wing people here value most people with money as "they must be successful and very intelligent if they have managed to make that much money".

However if they happen to be a left wing politician, then it's a "spoiled child".

Why is it that everyone loses their mind everytime he takes a trip somewhere? Yet these same people never even touched the post about the Conservative Manitoba premier who goes to Costa Rica for 2 months every year...it was even called "eh it's fine, with technology connecting everyone it's not a big deal". Why the double standard?

I get he was friends with Justins dad, I don't have issue with that at all. Also Justin didn't "make his money" he was given it and always lived a privileged life. That's fine too, hope to let my kids have more than my parents could provide myself. However I won't walk around to poor people trying to tell them I am "just like them" should I succeed.

As for the premier that went away it wasn't treated as meh, it was noted that it doesn't look good. Why do you think 1 year running a country and having the lowest attendance record and 10 vacations or so as the same as a downtime working vacation on mild downtime?

Personally I get JT going to a nice island, offered to me I'd do it to, but if I was the leader of this country I might take a second to rethink the image it projects if I wanted to get reelected while running massive deficits and spending like a drunk sailor with no real effect, while relaxing with massive inheritances and no long term concerns.

Personally, he did nothing of any consequence, as the leader of our country it just plays crappy in the polls, and his job is currently measured by the polls.

[JLives]

Anyone attacking and making fun of the spouse of an elected politician has sunk to the lowest level of scum.

Agreed. Melania included. Spouses and kids not involved in politics are off limits. Some pretty disgusting character being shown in this thread.

[GenesisGT]

And for claims the Trudeau broke section 14.1 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

Gifts and other advantages
14.1 No public office holder or member of his or her family shall accept any gift or other advantage, including from a trust, that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the public office holder in the exercise of an official power, duty or function.

If one is going to look at the Conflict of Interest Act, why not read the whole thing, paragraph 12

Travel
12 No minister of the Crown, minister of state or parliamentary secretary, no member of his or her family and no ministerial adviser or ministerial staff shall accept travel on non-commercial chartered or private aircraft for any purpose unless required in his or her capacity as a public office holder or in exceptional circumstances or with the prior approval of the Commissioner.

The way to get to the private island is via helicopter. So can JT say it was required in his capacity, exceptional circumstances or prior approval.

The problem with JT is why try to hide this trip, eventually it will come out, and why try to hide that he brought along an MP and spouse, and the head of the Liberal Party. This is the difference between the Manitoba Premier and JT, the premier is open about it and in fact it was well known before he was elected Premier. So I guess the people in Manitoba had no problem with it.

A public records search of Costa Rica’s Registro Nacional reveals that Brian Pallister, the conservative Canadian politician who opinion polls suggest is leading the Manitoba election but who recently has come under fire for spending nearly 20 percent of his time in the legislature away at his vacation home in Costa Rica, owns three properties in Costa Rica through a Costa Rican holding company of which he is president.

[K_teela]

Veovis I get what you're saying...but I still think it's being blown out of proportion a bit.

Why do you think 1 year running a country and having the lowest attendance record and 10 vacations or so as the same as a downtime working vacation on mild downtime?

The "10 vacations" is just something that came from "the Rebel". I'd hardly think if you drove down (roughly the same amount of time to fly there from Ottawa) to whistler for a weekend for some skiing that you would consider it to be a vacation. The Rebel took every weekend trip he made and called it a vacation.

Yeah he had quite a bit of time off, but so does every federal government. Most of his trips were within Canada and during times when House of Commons was not even in session (which is actually surprisingly often http://www.parl.gc.ca/HouseChamberBusiness/ChamberCalendar.aspx?Language=E...and not much can get done during this time anyways.
I'm actually glad he took some time to come to BC (Whislter/Kelowna/Tofino)...many times in the past the federal government has kind of forgotten the West Coast...at least he knows we're here :P

I think part of this is people got used to the way Harper ran things. In-house, tight-lipped and very controlled (which lead to a few secrecy issues but that's another topic). The traditional role of the PM is mostly organizational...setting up a team and speaking for the party mainly. Harper was more of an introvert/homebody so he didn't travel as much for pleasure and typically stayed at home, whereas Trudeau is more of an extrovert who enjoys interacting with the public...both are personal decisions that they were free to make for themselves.

if I wanted to get reelected while running massive deficits and spending like a drunk sailor with no real effect, while relaxing with massive inheritances and no long term concerns.

With the year Canada had (oil, fires)...any government (Including the Cons) would have run a large deficit this year (at least the Liberals didnt promise a balanced budget like the NDP/Cons did...they would have not been able to do it this year either). Some of the "for a cause" spending should be toned down in my opinion but it's still far too early to tell if it will have an effect or not. I'd say give it at LEAST another year, maybe 2 to see how things start to look.

However, in 2016 we've seen a gain in 60400 full time jobs and 153700 part time jobs...impossible to say if the infrastructure spending had anything to do with this...but considering the job loss in the oil industry this year, it's not a bad sign.

Besides, in recent history...apart from Cretien/Martin ALL of our federal governments have been spending like drunken sailors...and this won't change until people can get together and complain about it regardless of political affiliation. The right constantly blaming the left and the left constantly blaming the right will never amount to anything unless they're able to see the faults of the party they chose to support as well.

Personally, he did nothing of any consequence, as the leader of our country it just plays crappy in the polls, and his job is currently measured by the polls.

I agree with he did nothing of any consequence...but all these little things are turned into such a big deal every single time that the more important issues never get discussed. If people want to whine about every little insignificant thing (I'm not directing this at you), they quickly become ignored. Then when they decide to bring up legitimate issues, it's already considered white noise by that point. It's the whole boy who cried wolf scenario. Though most comes from the minority far-right, but they represent the vocal majority for their party and unfortunately the center-right are not really speaking up much (most of them are actually currently sorta OK with how things are going at the moment)...and thus the vocal few Rebel-media followers are ruining the Cons reputation for them. I don't think a reasonable conservative party has a chance in the near future unless they can deal with this identity crisis, much like the NDP is going through at the moment as well. A look at the Cons leadership race is very telling, we have a very reasonable center-right politician like Chong...to the nutcase Leitch.

If his actions do play crappy in the poles, that's just a risk they're willing to take I guess. If that's the case, the opposition should be more than happy to cheer on his behavior if they think it's going be self destructive.


Anyways, have a good night...I know we have differing opinions but thanks for being civil unlike several others that frequent this forum

[Rwede]

#Justinfakenews

[Rwede]

*removed*

[Rwede]

[Barney Google]

#Justinfakenews

Every time I hear JT speak with all the stammering and ahhhs and humms,

I am further convinced he is lying through his pearly white teeth.

LOL...for a former Drama Teacher and 'much sought after' and extremely well paid speaker he sure

is a TERRIBLE public speaker.

[Rwede]

It's warming up in the PMO, rapidly.




NEW Trudeau took Aga Khan's private helicopter to island vacation

PM says he doesn't see an issue but 'we look forward to discussing' it with ethics commissioner
By Matthew Kupfer, CBC News Posted: Jan 12, 2017 4:16 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 12, 2017 4:18 PM ET


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed he and his family accepted trips on the Aga Khan's private helicopter during his vacation to the spiritual leader's private island in the Bahamas, which may violate a section of the Conflict of Interest Act.

"The travel back-and-forth from Nassau to the island happens on the Aga Khan's private helicopter, which he offered us the use of," Trudeau said Thursday.

"It's something that certainly we look forward to discussing with … the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner. But we don't see an issue on that."

Conservative Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer asked the ethics commissioner on Monday to review whether Trudeau's stay on the Aga Khan's island is a gift that violates the Conflict of Interest Act.

Section 12 of the act also has rules prohibiting cabinet ministers from accepting sponsored travel.

"No minister of the Crown, minister of state or parliamentary secretary, no member of his or her family and no ministerial adviser or ministerial staff shall accept travel on non-commercial chartered or private aircraft for any purpose unless required in his or her capacity as a public office holder or in exceptional circumstances or with the prior approval of the Commissioner."

The prime minister had not gone to the ethics commissioner before his trip.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau ... -1.3932827

[The Green Barbarian]

*removed*

[bob vernon]

I believe that Trudeau might have even had lunch with the Aga Kahn. Just what kind of considerations would a leftist Muslim jihadist expect in return for lunch? Justin is endangering us all hanging around with leaders of rogue religions. Were there lessons in Muslimism included on this vacation? Any brainwashing sessions? It's all bad. And it's getting worse.

[Rwede]

Castanet needs the sarcasm font!

Well-written piece, IMO, with a strong message hidden in the sarcasm.



OPINION

Can't Trudeau enjoy a secret island vacation with a friend whose foundation lobbies the feds?


Why can't we cut the prime minister the slack we would have never afforded his less popular predecessor?

By Robyn Urback, CBC News Posted: Jan 12, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 12, 2017 5:00 AM ET

Canadians don't need to know where Trudeau is, so why should they have the right to know where he is? Right?

Enough, already.

For more than a week now, Canada's vociferous media has been hounding the Prime Minister's Office for information about where Justin Trudeau spent his New Year's holiday, and with whom. Can't they give it a rest?

The prime minister works hard. He's a nice guy. He deserves a private life. Certainly that justifies a complete blackout on the prime minister's whereabouts, as the PMO issued earlier this month.

Canadians don't need to know where Trudeau is, so why should they have the right to know where he is? Yes, the Liberals were elected on a platform of "openness," but — as mentioned earlier — Trudeau is a nice guy. For that reason, we probably should have cut him the slack we would have never afforded his less popular predecessor.

Private island

Yet thanks to the incessant hounding by the right rag National Post, the story didn't die. Instead, we learned Trudeau spent his vacation on the private Bahamian island of billionaire philanthropist the Aga Khan.

OK, it looks bad. The Aga Khan is the head of a foundation that has received millions of dollars in federal foreign aid. The organization is also registered to lobby the federal government. But hear me out.

First of all, the Aga Khan Foundation does good, important charity work. This would all be much more nefarious if Trudeau spent his holiday sipping cocktails on the private yacht of the head of a foundation I didn't like — someone who deals in oil, or banking or small-c conservative politics. But the Aga Khan is a good egg, therefore any obvious ethical or conflict of interest breaches — including the appearance thereof — should be forgiven.

Secondly, the Trudeau family and the Aga Khan are friends; they go way back. Should we really expect Trudeau to cut off contact with all of his friends just because he's now the prime minister? Of course not.

Sure, there's a distinction to be made between "remaining friends" and "secretly jetting off to a friend's private island and concealing details when pressed by the media," but really, what should the PMO have done? Been forthright about the information and risked igniting a controversy before he stepped on the plane? Bah! I'm pretty sure tickets on a government jet are non-refundable, anyway.

As with other events where the prime minister has met with billionaires, Canadians should rest assured the only political discussions on the Aga Khan's private island concerned the plight of the middle class. There have been reports of holiday discussions of how diversity is our strength and better is always possible, but as of yet, those reports are unconfirmed.

A family vacation

Above all, let's remember that this was just a Trudeau family vacation; there was nothing political about it. OK, so the president of the Liberal Party of Canada and Liberal MP Seamus O'Regan and his husband went too — a detail revealed only after further media pressure — but those guys are kind of like family also, no? They likewise care deeply about Canada's middle class and surely saw this as another opportunity to join in the conversation.


Rest of the story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trudeau- ... -1.3931267

[The Green Barbarian]

A family vacation

Above all, let's remember that this was just a Trudeau family vacation; there was nothing political about it. OK, so the president of the Liberal Party of Canada and Liberal MP Seamus O'Regan and his husband went too — a detail revealed only after further media pressure — but those guys are kind of like family also, no? They likewise care deeply about Canada's middle class and surely saw this as another opportunity to join in the conversation.

Good thing that the Liberal gang of buds didn't visit the Aga Khan's Iranian house for Christmas or old Seamus and his significant other would have to stay away from the top of buildings, for fear of being flung off them.

There is a history here with the Aga Khan and the Trudeau family. During Pierre's reign Canada allowed Ismaili Muslim refugees into Canada that were being persecuted in Uganda, one family being the Nenshi family, whose son is now the mayor of Calgary. As far as Muslims go, this particular brand seem to be the least likely to self-detonate, pick up an AK and start firing into crowds at discotheques, and to at least try to swerve while driving buses through crowds.

The Aga Khan sounds like a good guy, and I think what bothers me about this trip isn't that Trudeau and a gang of his buds decided to go party on his island, it's that JT tried to hide it from the media, because he knew it might conflict with this "common man" persona he's been selling. This after going on and on about transparency. Young JT seems to be getting more and more arrogant as he goes, and we are still only a year and a bit into his mandate. This is why people said he wasn't ready, and why I didn't want to hand him a majority. Minority, ok. But not a majority.

[jimmy4321]

At least he has the nuts to stand in front of a camera and take questions unlike the past government with the stand in Calandra and crew speaking jibberish- remember the tears? Shameful circus that was

[The Green Barbarian]

At least he has the nuts to stand in front of a camera and take questions unlike the past government with Calandra and crew speaking jibberish- remember the tears? Shameful circus that was

Yes, Trudeau trying to suppress information about his holidays and then slowly and painfully releasing information after being hounded by the media and after promising greater transparency is a huge refreshing change.