GOLDSTEIN: PM entitled to vacation — taxpayers entitled to know where

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a two-week trip along with his household in Costa Rica and that’s high-quality — aside from the actual fact his local weather change agenda in Canada would recommend a trip nearer to residence, to guide by instance.

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However that’s completely different from recognizing that being PM is a tricky job and he’s entitled to trip time along with his household.

Nevertheless, it comes with the caveat that the PM is all the time the PM, no matter whether or not he’s working in his workplace in Ottawa, attending G-7 conferences in Europe, or vacationing on a seashore within the Caribbean, or in Tofino, B.C.

The Prime Minister’s Workplace famous that in his Costa Rica trip, Trudeau is getting common briefings and it consulted with the ethics commissioner upfront in regards to the journey, concerning any potential conflicts of curiosity.

All effectively and good.

What’s foolish is that that some media commentators in Canada are criticizing different media for having reported on Trudeau’s Costa Rica trip, as if it must be some form of state secret and it’s unfair to criticize the PM for happening trip when there are critical points at residence.

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It’s foolish as a result of if nobody within the media had requested questions on Trudeau, his household and a few Liberal buddies vacationing with the Aga Khan on his non-public island within the Bahamas in late 2016, we’d by no means have recognized Trudeau broke the federal battle of curiosity act by doing so.

The PMO initially tried to maintain the place Trudeau and his household have been vacationing a secret.

When it lastly did say Trudeau was on trip within the Bahamas after media questioning, it failed to say till a number of days later that he was on the non-public island of the Aga Khan, whereas his authorities was giving thousands and thousands of {dollars} of taxpayers’ cash to his charitable basis.

Equally, if the media had taken the phrase of the PMO final 12 months that Trudeau was in non-public conferences in Ottawa throughout Nationwide Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30, we’d by no means have recognized he was actually holidaying in Tofino, B.C. — strolling on a seashore whereas the PMO insisted he wasn’t on a seashore.

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Trudeau apologized for what he described as an error in judgment by not accepting an invite from Indigenous leaders to fulfill with them that day in B.C., amid the invention of unmarked graves close to residential colleges. He mentioned he had telephone conversations with residential college survivors that day.

The explanation Trudeau’s holidays have been controversial is that the PMO has been secretive about them, because it was the 12 months earlier than his Aga Khan trip when Trudeau and his household have been holidaying in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

That blew up when TMZ reported the Trudeaus have been staying at an costly resort.

(Trudeau pays for his household’s private prices on holidays. Taxpayers pay for accommodating his RCMP safety element, amongst different bills.)

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The PMO seems to have realized — lastly — that maintaining the placement of Trudeau’s holidays secret is dumb, as they’ve now included he’s in Costa Rica on his day by day itinerary.

In contrast, because the White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation notes on its web site, American media are routinely knowledgeable the place the U.S. president is vacationing and a small group of reporters known as the press pool — representing all American media — have travelled with U.S. presidents on their holidays for the reason that period of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. president from 1933 till his demise in 1945.

lgoldstein@postmedia.com