Canadian Politics Today
Federal Politics => Canadian Politics => Topic started by: JMT on February 03, 2017, 11:20:14 pm
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http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/rona-ambrose-vacationed-on-billionaire-s-yacht-during-trudeau-criticism-1.3270877
Sure, she cleared the trip first. Funny she didn't mention that she cleared the trip as a point of contrast between her and Trudeau.
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She did clear it, but yeah - why didn't she point out her stellar behavior? Something fishy going on there. Are we getting the entire story?
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She isnt the PM
She isnt running to be PM
She isnt running to be party leader
Does Murray Edwards lobby the government for millions of our tax dollars? Ambrose has no ability to influence where that money goes even if he did.
Trudeau is not being investigated for his staying at the Island, but for the transportation to the island. She will not be investigated at all, as she seems to have broken no rules.
There is a difference between accepting an invitation from a friend and accepting an invitation from a friend when your friend lobbies us for big dollars and you, the PM, can obviously influence the outcome of that lobbying while also doing something against the rules in order to accept that invitation. No one expects that you cant associate with your friends, but when they ask for our money and you control the purse strings, there is a difference. Also, to my knowledge Seamus O'Reagan and Anna Gainey are not even family friends of the Aga Kahn, yet somehow got invited to the lobbyists island with Trudeau, they being in the ruling party have even less excuse for being there than Trudeau and considering where they were and how they got there, are also in more conflict than Ambrose. Who isn't in one at all and has broken no rules, these are significant differences.
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I still think it would have warranted a mention - at least for comparison sake. Of course, you and I both know why she didn't mention it. It looks bad, just as the Trudeau thing looks bad.
It's also worth comparison on another point. Trudeau spent his vacation with a millionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader. Ambrose spent her's with a corporate billionaire. I probably would have wanted this kept quiet, if I were her, if only for the sake of optics.
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What I find funny is that the news article went out of their way on ctvnews to explicitly say that Ambrose cleared her trip with the ethics commissioner.
That said she probably shouldn't be going on yachts if the Tories want to hammer the liberals for being elites
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Well, I think the fact that she cleared her vacation beforehand with the ethics commissioner, while Trudeau didn't, makes a statement about her judgment and his lack thereof.
That said, I do wonder why politicians often seem to have wealthy friends. She isn't currently in a position of influence, but she was for a long time...
-k
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It's great that she cleared it before hand. You just know that this is one of the things that she didn't want people to know, and so she didn't mention it.
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She isnt the PM
You forgot the most important of all, she is a Conservative so therefore she will have a billion excuses including blame the opposition.
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You forgot the most important of all, she is a Conservative so therefore she will have a billion excuses including blame the opposition.
Given that her trip was cleared with the ethics commissioner beforehand, I don't think she needs any excuses, let alone a billion of them. If the Prime Minister had had the sense to do the same, would there be an issue with his vacation with the Aga Khan? Was there some suggestion that Trudeau was exchanging favors for a swell vacation? To the best of my knowledge, the breach of ethical guidelines is the only issue of any substance here. To me, the issue with Trudeau's vacation isn't that he went, it's just that his failure to follow the guidelines makes me question his judgment and common sense.
-k
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You have to wonder if she would have cleared it with the ethics commissioner before Trudeau's vacation "scandal."
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You forgot the most important of all, she is a Conservative so therefore she will have a billion excuses including blame the opposition.
Nope, i didn't forget that, im just not a believer in irrelevant and or made up things.
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Let me say this. She did nothing wrong. I promise you, she didn't want you or me to found out about it.
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You have to wonder if she would have cleared it with the ethics commissioner before Trudeau's vacation "scandal."
Maybe not, but the most important point is that she wouldn't have been breaking any rules either way.
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I don't know, I think her words matter too:
This is what she posted on Facebook, January 12th:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knew what he did was against the law. All he had to do was say no, but he couldn’t resist the billionaire lifestyle vacay.
He lives in a completely different world.
Like I said, she did nothing wrong. She's still a hypocrite.
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BTW, when that was posted, she was on the yacht.
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And there's this:
IPolitics reported that she didn’t check the vacation with the ethics commissioner’s office until she was already on vacation, but was told it wouldn’t need to be reported.
Ambrose has been outspoken in her disdain for Trudeau’s vacation, tweeting in January saying Trudeau should have known better but “couldn’t resist the billionaire lifestyle.” (The tweet was published while she was still on vacation on the yacht.)
http://globalnews.ca/news/3227551/rona-ambrose-vacations-on-friends-yacht-during-trudeau-vacation-scandal/
In other words (as Cybercoma said), she reported it because she didn't want to get in trouble after seeing what happened to Trudeau.
She's an even bigger hypocrite than I thought.
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Let me say this. She did nothing wrong. I promise you, she didn't want you or me to found out about it.
Correct it's not a question of could of it's should of
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Given that her trip was cleared with the ethics commissioner beforehand, I don't think she needs any excuses, let alone a billion of them. If the Prime Minister had had the sense to do the same, would there be an issue with his vacation with the Aga Khan? Was there some suggestion that Trudeau was exchanging favors for a swell vacation? To the best of my knowledge, the breach of ethical guidelines is the only issue of any substance here. To me, the issue with Trudeau's vacation isn't that he went, it's just that his failure to follow the guidelines makes me question his judgment and common sense.
-k
To add on, Ambrose even though she went through the right channels, she should have known that since the Tories are clubbing the liberals with hanging out with rich elites that any Tories hanging out with rich elites even though cleared is a bad idea.
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To add on, Ambrose even though she went through the right channels, she should have known that since the Tories are clubbing the liberals with hanging out with rich elites that any Tories hanging out with rich elites even though cleared is a bad idea.
Definitely... if she Tweeted about Trudeau's "billionaire vacay" while she was cruising around the Caribbean on a billionaire's yacht, she's an idiot.
(personally, I think anybody who uses the word "vacay" is an idiot anyway, for that matter.)
And yeah... if she only cleared her vacation with the ethics commissioner after she was already on the yacht roasting Trudeau for his own vacation, then I take back what I said about her having better judgment than Trudeau.
-k
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Can we just cut to the chase and acknowledge that she only checked to score political points. That's exactly what this is. If Trudeau wasn't in the midst of a scandal regarding his vacation, she would have never checked. It's good that she did, yes. But let's not pretend she's doing it because she's trying to do the right thing. She's doing it to rub Trudeau's nose in it.
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Sure, but, at least this story was all over the news and internet media yesterday.
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The plot thickens:
Rona Ambrose vacationed on a yacht owned by a billionaire Calgary oilman whose aerospace company benefited from tens of millions in federal funds from the Conservative government during her tenure in cabinet.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/rona-ambrose-denies-link-between-federal-funding-and-spouses-billionaire-friend/article33977350/?cmpid=PM0217&utm_source=FB&utm_campaign=PM0217
IMO, this is worse than what Trudeau did.
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But the ethics commissioner said it was okay. /s