Vacation questions steal focus from Trudeau Tour
PETERBOROUGH, Ont. (CP) — Justin Trudeau’s campaign-style outreach tour offered no respite Friday from questions about his family vacation with the Aga Khan — nor the priorities of ordinary Canadians, from soaring hydro bills to carbon taxes to Donald Trump.
Trudeau continued to defend himself from critics assailing his use of a private helicopter belonging to the wealthy spiritual leader, even though the federal Conflict of Interest Act expressly forbids such perks.
“Prime minister is not a nine-to-five job,” Trudeau told a news conference in Peterborough, Ont., presumably a reference to the fact that his behaviour remains subject to public scrutiny even during what he calls a “private family vacation.”
“I’m prime minister every minute of every day . . . that’s part of the job and I fully accept and embrace it.”
Canadians expect to have confidence in their government, he added, repeating his commitment to co-operate with the federal ethics commissioner regarding the trip.
But his controversial family holiday at the Aga Khan’s ultra-private Bahamian island appeared far from the minds of the ordinary Canadians who packed a town hall in Peterborough to give the prime minister a window into their world.
Kathy Katula, 54, from Buckhorn, Ont., gave Trudeau a piece of her mind about her soaring hydro bill — a phenomenon that’s largely an Ontario government problem — and the prime minister’s plan to force the provinces to impose a carbon tax.
“I feel like you have failed me, and I am asking you here today to fix that,” an emotional Katula told Trudeau. “My heat and hydro cost me more than my mortgage.”
The prime minister began his day with a jog with troops at CFB Trenton, followed by breakfast and small talk with soldiers in the mess hall.
Later, he stopped by a restaurant brimming with locals in Bewdley, Ont., and visited a Toronto Raptors training facility to meet youth from La Loche, a Saskatchewan community still reeling from a school shooting last year that killed four and injured seven others.