[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

After all it's the people that keep letting these politicians get away with it.

We get the government we deserve.

[Thanos]

It's considerably less awful that the SNC-Lavalin scandal or Redford's skypalace. But it's also significantly worse than Bev Oda's $16 orange juice. At least they could have paid for the flight out of party funds and no one would care at all. As it is it's just typical of austerity politicians to do things like this - you regular folks and my political enemies are going to bleed badly but me and my pals are going to make out like bandits, and our perpetually-angry supporters are going to go along with it every step of the way. This is why I didn't vote for the UCP, because I absolutely KNEW this sort of thing would start happening with them.

[bootlegga]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

CDN $1k pp for a charter is a STEAL.

Just saying.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but Kenney's government just released the toughest budget in a generation, targeting wasteful spending. So for him to fly his buddies and their wives, as well as their staff, to this meeting was incredibly wasteful.

He could easily have bought commercial seats on Air Canada (a quick search shows them to be about $1500/seat) for himself, his wife, and his staff. Even 10 tickets would have cost less than his charter flight did.

I might be able to condone this if Kenney was magnanimous and flew all the other Premiers there on this charter flight, so he could 'build relationships' as he defended this trip. But instead of just his conservative buddies and their wives.

[BartSimpson]

bootlegga bootlegga:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

CDN $1k pp for a charter is a STEAL.

Just saying.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but Kenney's government just released the toughest budget in a generation, targeting wasteful spending. So for him to fly his buddies and their wives, as well as their staff, to this meeting was incredibly wasteful.

He could easily have bought commercial seats on Air Canada (a quick search shows them to be about $1500/seat) for himself, his wife, and his staff. Even 10 tickets would have cost less than his charter flight did.

I might be able to condone this if Kenney was magnanimous and flew all the other Premiers there on this charter flight, so he could 'build relationships' as he defended this trip. But instead of just his conservative buddies and their wives.

Ten tickets commercial would have been $15,000 (10 x $1500) - how is that cheaper at $1500pp as opposed to $1000pp?

[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

This is why I didn't vote for the UCP, because I absolutely KNEW this sort of thing would start happening with them.

Ditto. Alberta Conservatives always end up with their entitlement fully formed at birth.

I knew with Kenney' sketchy win as the leader of the shadily created UCP, and all the investigations into it, that he was going to be no different; an Ontarian who comes to Alberta and thinks he knows us and can be like us.

[BartSimpson]

Meanwhile, in California, our politicians squander BILLIONS.

Pardon me my perspective that $16k is not so serious.

[Thanos]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Ten tickets commercial would have been $15,000 (10 x $1500) - how is that cheaper at $1500pp as opposed to $1000pp?

Because these greedy larcenous assholes we just elected into power in this province should have paid for their all-conservative con-fab out of party funds instead of with taxpayer dollars. The price of the tickets is irrelevant. That these tickets were bought from government expenses never should have happened in the first place. This UCP government, when it's all said and done, is going to be the single worst government in Alberta history, worse even than Redford's reign of poorly-concealed graft. Every single accusation during the campaign of them playing fast and loose with ethics is rapidly being confirmed, and it will be impossible to stop them because they now run the government.

Once again conservatives simply don't care about the abuse of public dollars when it's them who are doing the bait-and-switch. They are no different, period, than how the federal Liberals do things when those other particular assholes are in charge of a government. There is no hope anymore, because every single one of these parties everywhere in the world are now just vehicles for the worst slime in our societies to have a grand old time at everyone else's expense.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Meanwhile, in California, our politicians squander BILLIONS.

Pardon me my perspective that $16k is not so serious.

We know, that's why we try to stop it before it gets as out of hand as you guys.

And Like Boots wrote, they just passed a very austere budget where the most vulnerable will starve (literally); the Premier's office gets a raise, and now they pull this bullshit!? Hard no.

[bootlegga]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

bootlegga bootlegga:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

CDN $1k pp for a charter is a STEAL.

Just saying.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but Kenney's government just released the toughest budget in a generation, targeting wasteful spending. So for him to fly his buddies and their wives, as well as their staff, to this meeting was incredibly wasteful.

He could easily have bought commercial seats on Air Canada (a quick search shows them to be about $1500/seat) for himself, his wife, and his staff. Even 10 tickets would have cost less than his charter flight did.

I might be able to condone this if Kenney was magnanimous and flew all the other Premiers there on this charter flight, so he could 'build relationships' as he defended this trip. But instead of just his conservative buddies and their wives.

Ten tickets commercial would have been $15,000 (10 x $1500) - how is that cheaper at $1500pp as opposed to $1000pp?

$15K is a worst case scenario.

However, if there were 16 people on the flight, and that included two other Premiers, their wives, and one staffer per Premier, plus one retired Premier (Bob McLeod), that means Kenney's would only have needed a max of 9 tickets. But because they didn't release the manifest, I have no idea how many staffers Kenney's guests brought. It could very well be that half (or more) of the passengers on the flight were Kenney's guests.

Again, it's not the cost, but the hypocritical nature of this expense.

Kenney just told disabled Albertans that not getting an extra $25-100/month because their benefits have been de-indexed is no big deal. If he's going to talk the talk about cost cutting and frugality, then he should walk the walk too.

FWIW, this isn't just lefties being upset about this, the right-leaning Canadian TaxPayer's Federation came out against this too:

$1:

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation also slammed the $16,000 flight, calling it a “misuse of tax dollars at the worst possible time.”

“How can Kenney look taxpayers in the eye right now and tell them he dropped thousands of dollars on a charter flight to Saskatoon?” said Franco Terrazzano, Alberta director of the CTF.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6140515/albe ... -premiers/

It's even more telling when Kenney himself called out this kind of behaviour, noting that a $45,000 flight for a previous Alberta Premier cost her her job.

[BeaverFever]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Just my own two cents here but this was a good deal. $1k pp on a charter actually saved on the level of security they would have required on a common carrier flight, road convoy, or etc.

Premiers don’t use much security when traveling domestically. This Afghanistan or the US. A public appearance is one thing but just traveling from A to B would only be a few guys for the whole group.

[BartSimpson]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Just my own two cents here but this was a good deal. $1k pp on a charter actually saved on the level of security they would have required on a common carrier flight, road convoy, or etc.

Premiers don’t use much security when traveling domestically. This Afghanistan or the US. A public appearance is one thing but just traveling from A to B would only be a few guys for the whole group.

Fair point.

20 years ago I got to drive Alberto Fujimori from the Sacramento airport to the inaugural for Governor Wilson. The dude was President of Peru and he traveled with exactly ONE assistant.

I'm still impressed by that.

In California the state executives carry on like the sultans of old and I guess I'm not used to the idea that even a premier can carry on like a somewhat normal person.

Thanks for the perspective adjustment.

[Thanos]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Again, it's not the cost, but the hypocritical nature of this expense.

Kenney just told disabled Albertans that not getting an extra $25-100/month because their benefits have been de-indexed is no big deal. If he's going to talk the talk about cost cutting and frugality, then he should walk the walk too.

Today's outrage from the budget is that they also got rid of a tiny subsidy to cover some expenses for kids with a single parent who are in adult education. Just more punching-down on those already on the edge, making things worse for as many people as they can while they play Austerity Hero/Ralph Klein II: Electric Boogaloo to the rapturous enjoyment of the mean-spirited cranks who voted them in. Kenney's doing the exact opposite of what he "promised" during the election, cutting as hard and viciously as possible (just like Klein did) when he said point-blank he wouldn't. His word is as worthless as Jean Chretien's was after his blatant lying about the GST.

They're all just assholes, well-connected pieces of shit with gold-plated pensions who never ever had even a single uncomfortable day in their entire lives. They're just slime, all of them, right down to their rotten core.

[fifeboy]

Thanos Thanos:

They're all just assholes, well-connected pieces of shit with gold-plated pensions who never ever had even a single uncomfortable day in their entire lives. They're just slime, all of them, right down to their rotten core.

Come on dude, tell us what you REALLY think