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Globetrotting MLAs are in league |
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Written by Al Ho
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Saturday, 26 July 2008 |
There was a time when the Herald’s Director of New Content, Dan Leger would have sent Amy Smith back out to ask the right questions of her “globetrotting” MLAs. Smith, if you missed it, had a story that dominated the front page of the July 24th edition of the Chronicle-Herald. It had all the potential of a blockbuster. Instead, it bordered on being a complete bust.
Leger, who cut his journalistic teeth at the Fourth Estate and later the Dartmouth Free Press, would have blown the whole lot out of the water had he been assigned to the story.
The more I read the more I kept asking myself, “What’s the point?”
Other than mentioning Angus MacIsacc’s two trips to India, totaling $30,824.66, there was no dollar figure in the story. I did a Google search and found much more reasonable fares for a round trip from Halifax to Bombay, India. The prices offered by New Wave Travel (return in Canadian dollars) started at $2415, and ranged to $7984. In between were seats for $3055. Looks like our man Angus had lots of leg room.
Yet Smith did no comparison shopping to see if our tax dollars were well spent.
Besides the junket to India, there were trips to Hong Kong, Norway, Australia, China, Ireland, Qatar, Panama, Germany, Bermuda, England, Scotland, France, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Spain, as well as various jaunts to destinations in the United States and Canada. No wonder our Legislature sits the least amount of time of any in Canada; the members are too busy travelling.
The Atlantic Institute For Market Studies’ Charles Cirtwell had it right when he told Smith, “I’m glad they (politicians have to defend it, not me.” But defend it they did.
Only Graham Steele came close to breaking the code that exists between the elected Members of the Nova Scotia Legislature. “The taxpayers are paying for all of this and they deserve to know that this is good use for their money,” he is quoted as saying. Careful Graham, you’ll get kicked out of the old boys club.
Some trips are necessary if we are going to grow our economy and remain competitive with our Atlantic neighbours. No fair-minded person would dispute that contention. The trips I scratch my head in wonder over are the ones where they pair them off – a government minister goes on a trip and takes the opposition critics with him.
A case in point was Justice Minister Cecil Clarke’s trip to Miami to tour a medical examiner’s facility/crime lab. At our expense, he lugged along Darrell Dexter and Michel Samson. Maybe it was legit, or maybe it was a few days in the warm Florida sun, we will never know, because those whose duty it is to critique government, keep them honest, were part of the outing.
When she interviewed Manning MacDonald, the Liberal House Leader and former cabinet minister, Smith more or less took his word for it when he defended the trips as being “working trips” and not “holidays.” No mention of the trips he took as a minister or of the ones he tagged along on as an Opposition MLA.
This is a practice not limited to our provincial government; Federal Members of Parliament also pair off and travel the world together on our dime. This is a practice that must stop. As long as the opposition members accept and take part in these trips, we can only assume they are in league with those who sit on the government’s side of the House.
One of the trips involved Rodney MacDonald travelling to New York to ring the stock exchange opening bell. Big deal. We are getting out financial bells rung daily by these globetrotters living high on the hog,.
(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist and broadcaster)
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