MPs' Expenses.......

[Colpy]

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepo...ers-trying-to-make-sense-of-mps-expenses.html

Well, Interesting.

I was pleased to see that at the absolute bottom of the expense list was the Minister of health......the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, and that my own MP, Rodney Weston, was fifth, from the bottom. Kinda cements my vote.

Stephen Fletcher was top dog spender, but in his defense, I imagine his medical condition adds costs.........

Russ Hiebert was second highest.....NO excuse for that.......

I was not surprised to find Jack Layton in seventh place.....the socialists do SO love to spend other peoples' money.

Neither Harper, Ignatieff, nor Duceppe were in the top 20 spenders.....nor were they in the bottom 20.........

Comments?

 

[L Gilbert]

Interesting. One of the local guys (BC southern interior), Atamanenko, is in the top 20 spenders. Guess what ... he is a Dipper.

 

[JLM]

Interesting. One of the local guys (BC southern interior), Atamanenko, is in the top 20 spenders. Guess what ... he is a Dipper.

In his defence he has a fairly large riding, with remote areas to handle and he is a fair distance from Ottawa. I think Atamanenko is fairly solid per se, but of course he must also follow the N.D.P. philosophy which is to spend until someone else's money runs out. :lol::lol::lol:

 

[Tonington]

Interesting. One of the local guys (BC southern interior), Atamanenko, is in the top 20 spenders. Guess what ... he is a Dipper.

In fairness, he's in the top 20 for travel expenses. BC is near the top for distance to travel to get to Ottawa. Almost $200,000 though, which does seem excessive.

Layton though...no such excuse!

 

[Kreskin]

In all fairness to Layton, he does need to visit Vancouver Island a couple of times per year to tell laid-off forestry workers that they aren't working.

 

[Machjo]

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepo...ers-trying-to-make-sense-of-mps-expenses.html

Well, Interesting.

I was pleased to see that at the absolute bottom of the expense list was the Minister of health......the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, and that my own MP, Rodney Weston, was fifth, from the bottom. Kinda cements my vote.

Stephen Fletcher was top dog spender, but in his defense, I imagine his medical condition adds costs.........

Russ Hiebert was second highest.....NO excuse for that.......

I was not surprised to find Jack Layton in seventh place.....the socialists do SO love to spend other peoples' money.

Neither Harper, Ignatieff, nor Duceppe were in the top 20 spenders.....nor were they in the bottom 20.........

Comments?

Not to defend socialists here, but you do seem to express a certain bias. I don't know if Duceppe himself considers himself a socialist (though I know he was involved in the labour union movement for awhile), but I'm sure at least some in his party are probably self-described socialists.So how would this fit in with Duceppe not being among the top 20 spenders if spending and socilaism necessarily go hand in hand? I could see a self-proclaimed socialist who believes in increasing government funding to help the less fortunate members of society but who would still spend little on himself. I could also see the opposite with a hard-core capitalist MP who'd splurge on himself. I doubt very much that ideology itself will play much of a role in how an MP spends his money. I think personal character and self-discipline are more relevant here than ideology.

That said, I do agree that looking at an MP's personal expenses does reveal something about that MP's character, and for those who vote on an MP's character, it will certainly affect their vote. But again, I disagree with you that ideology plays much of a role in all of this.

I would also avoid voting strictly on this. After all, an MP with greater expenses might have a very legitimate reason for it as you'd pointed out above. So I would look at not only how much they spent, but also at how they spent it.

 

[Machjo]

In all fairness to Layton, he does need to visit Vancouver Island a couple of times per year to tell laid-off forestry workers that they aren't working.

He could have made better use of those funds by learning how to use Skype or even a simple e-mail account, or MSN messenger or yahoo messenger, buy a computer, get internet access, and bingo, that would save much more money than constant plane tickets, is faster, more reliable, you name it.

 

[Machjo]

Royal Gallipeau is nowhere to be found in the link in the OP. I've received junk mail from his office before, and it's all partisan crap. I don't know how much he spends, but I'm certainly not impressed on that front at least.

 

[JLM]

In all fairness to Layton, he does need to visit Vancouver Island a couple of times per year to tell laid-off forestry workers that they aren't working.

Or more likely to convince them it's the premier of B.C.'s fault...............:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[JLM]

Not to defend socialists here, but you do seem to express a certain bias. I don't know if Duceppe himself considers himself a socialist (though I know he was involved in the labour union movement for awhile), but I'm sure at least some in his party are probably self-described socialists.So how would this fit in with Duceppe not being among the top 20 spenders if spending and socilaism necessarily go hand in hand?
.

Doesn't Duceppe live about 150 miles or less from Ottawa? He should get back & forth on a bus pass. :lol::lol::lol:

 

[L Gilbert]

In his defence he has a fairly large riding, with remote areas to handle and he is a fair distance from Ottawa. I think Atamanenko is fairly solid per se, but of course he must also follow the N.D.P. philosophy which is to spend until someone else's money runs out. :lol::lol::lol:

In fairness, he's in the top 20 for travel expenses. BC is near the top for distance to travel to get to Ottawa. Almost $200,000 though, which does seem excessive.

Layton though...no such excuse!

Yeah, I thought of that. He blew half a million, $175K of which was travel. That's a third of a million for food, staff (of which he doesn't have any more or less than others), advertising (which for him consists of a monthly "newsletter" whining about how bad the Cons & Glibs are, and how good the Dippers would be), doing stuff for this area (which is a mystery), etc. lol
Oh, BTW, southern BC's version of remote is places like Sandon, Retallack, Needles, etc. Just about everything else is along fairly major routes. But I don't begrudge a plane ticket from Kloneville to Crannybrook and back to C-gar the odd time. I know plane tickets are not cheap.

 

[L Gilbert]

Doesn't Duceppe live about 150 miles or less from Ottawa? He should get back & forth on a bus pass. :lol::lol::lol:

Oh, but helos and small planes are much better. lol

 

[Machjo]

advertising (which for him consists of a monthly "newsletter" whining about how bad the Cons & Glibs are, and how good the Dippers would be), doing stuff for this area (which is a mystery), etc.

Same problem with mine. I'm not against a newsletter per se, but I do expect it to be non-partisan at least. After all, he's supposed to be representing the entire community, not his local party riding association. That alone would have lost him my vote (though granted he'd lost it already long before that owing to other gaffes of his).

 

[Mowich]

In all fairness to Layton, he does need to visit Vancouver Island a couple of times per year to tell laid-off forestry workers that they aren't working.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Colpy]

Not to defend socialists here, but you do seem to express a certain bias. I don't know if Duceppe himself considers himself a socialist (though I know he was involved in the labour union movement for awhile), but I'm sure at least some in his party are probably self-described socialists.So how would this fit in with Duceppe not being among the top 20 spenders if spending and socilaism necessarily go hand in hand? I could see a self-proclaimed socialist who believes in increasing government funding to help the less fortunate members of society but who would still spend little on himself. I could also see the opposite with a hard-core capitalist MP who'd splurge on himself. I doubt very much that ideology itself will play much of a role in how an MP spends his money. I think personal character and self-discipline are more relevant here than ideology.

That said, I do agree that looking at an MP's personal expenses does reveal something about that MP's character, and for those who vote on an MP's character, it will certainly affect their vote. But again, I disagree with you that ideology plays much of a role in all of this.

I would also avoid voting strictly on this. After all, an MP with greater expenses might have a very legitimate reason for it as you'd pointed out above. So I would look at not only how much they spent, but also at how they spent it.

Actually, Gilles Duceppe is a somewhat reformed Maoist. No, I'm not kidding, look it up. He is now a socialist, having gotten over his early flirtation with fanaticism.
However, he rules the Bloc with an iron fist, and if he ever came to power in any political entity, the wise thing to do would be to shoot him.

That said, I actually LIKE the guy.......he lives his beliefs, and I would sooner sit down over a beer with him than with any damned idiot urban, intellectual, hypocritical silver spoon socialist come down from the ivory tower to save me from myself. (ie Jack Layton)

I would bet Duceppe's expenses are closer to the bottom than any of the other party leaders.

 

[taxslave]

Our MP James Lunney is near the top but he does have a big riding with three offices to staff. Also his wife flies with him most of the time which apparently is allowed. What amazes me is the amount spent by Ottawa area MPs. They have no travel costs and do not need to rent a shack either.
They all know how to spend our money.

 

[Ron in Regina]

My MP is Ralph Goodale. The one lonely Liberal out here on the flatlands.
He seems to be middle-of-the-pack in most areas.