Justin Trudeau keeps telling us that he and his team are about the middle class and those working hard to join it. Well most middle class Canadians have no idea how or why coffee for 6 of Trudeau’s staffers should cost $548.39.
Since writing a short piece on this the other day I’ve seen lots of outrage from everyday Canadians. I’ve also had lots of push back from Liberals claiming that I am spreading fake news.
They’ve given me a ton of reasons as to why I am wrong. None of which hold water.
Here is the actual proactive disclosure notice as posted on the website of the prime minister’s office.
It is pretty cut and dray and yet I’ve been fed a bunch of false claims to defend Trudeau on this. Here are the two most popular.
FALSE CLAIM #1: It was an event over 11 or 12 days.
This is a comment I’ve received by people that think 01-12 means the event started on the first day of an unidentified month and went to the 12 day of a still yet unidentified month. No, that is January 12, which just happens to be the day that an event was held in London, Ontario during a Liberal cabinet retreat.
FALSE CLAIM #2: There were more than 6 people.
Some people seem to think this was coffee for the entire convention. No, not unless the Trudeau PMO staffers aren’t following the laws on proactive disclosure. Under proactive disclosure you are supposed to say clearly how many people were at an event where hospitality was provided by taxpayers. You are also supposed to report how many of those people were government employees and how many were guests. This clearly says 6 employees, 0 guests.
So I go back to the original question here, how do you spend $548.39 on coffee for 6?
You really do have to try hard. One person that was trying to defend Trudeau sent me the menu for the London Convention Centre. It didn’t help.
A coffee service for 6 with 6 mugs and a large carafe is just $23.95. You could get more than 20 of those for what these guys spent.
A full urn with mugs and coffee for 40 is $149.95. They could have ordered a, “Selection of Freshly Baked Seasonal Muffins, Low-Fat Muffins, Fruit Danishes and Croissants” all for just $35.75 a dozen.
There are lots of things they could have ordered and still not made it to $548.39 for 6 people.
They had to work hard for this.
How extravagant was it?
I do see French Macarons on the menu at $41.95 a dozen for the tiny, and very trendy, French cookies. There is a minimum order of 4 dozen. Maybe they did that.
They could have been ordering their sparkling water at $3.50 a bottle. I could see Gerry Butts really liking that.
The bottom line is that this is a government that claims to be about the middle class. Well middle class Canadians don’t spend $91.40 per person on a coffee service on top of the breakfast, lunch and dinner we would all be paying for.
Anyone traveling on business should have their meals paid for by their employers and I don’t think you should have to scrimp. But this isn’t scrimping, this is extravagant.
Even if this were a lunch that was wrongly reported as coffee for 6, it is still ridiculous.
The Liberal weakness is when their people, elected or otherwise, start feeling entitled to their entitlements. That is what this is.
I recall how the Liberals made a huge to-do about Bev Oda billing Canada for a $16 glass of orange juice – a circumstance that contributed to her resigning from politics. Where is the pure Liberal outrage over their own members extravagantly billing Canadians for $91 for a mere cup of coffee. This is yet another example, in a long list, of the Liberals contempt for Canadians and misplaced sense of entitlement. Next government please!