Entitlement gets in way of judgment
It’s almost as frustrating as having to explain something over and over to a twoyear-old. But in this case it’s people purportedly leading our country who don’t seem to get it.
When it comes to inappropriate spending by politicians or by government departments, so often the truth will come out – whether through freedom of information requests by some pesky news organization, or snooping around by the opposition. Moving expenses for a couple of top civil servants that obviously involved more than renting a U-Haul mark just one more instance that makes people’s blood boil.
When it does hit the fan, the spray is more than the sum of its parts. In other words, even if we’re talking about a government whose yearly budget ranges in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a million bucks or even a couple of grand tossed casually around does not come off as chump change for the average Joe.
So when the news broke last week that two top aides for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the move in 2015 from Ottawa to Toronto, one with costs of $126,669 and the other $80,382, we know which way the discussion will go. People have an idea of what things cost. The Conservatives obviously enjoyed the easy lob ball, and among other things described this as the Liberals’ enduring sense of entitlement to taxpayers’ money.
We’ll take that one under advisement, considering some of the tales the Conservatives themselves generated while in power: glasses of orange juice that rang in at the price of champagne, and cross-town trips enjoyed in limos. They get in power, they all enjoy their sense of entitlement – until they get caught.
Since then, the two staff members – who claim they followed the rules of the federal relocation policy – have repaid a portion, for one, $23,373, and the other, $20,299. But it’s one of those things: people will have trouble getting their heads around something like the cost of a new fleet of jets for the military, but they do remember the little stuff.
Obviously, the big things matter dearly as well. Taxpayers expect due diligence in all decisions. But governments would do well to get really tough when it comes to guarding the cookie jar.
You’d think they would have learned the lesson by now. The best thing that people, opposition and the media can do is to parade these instances when discovered in public view and hope to shame them into more prudent decisions.