Time for CPC to fix this issue (en francais)

From the Toronto Star's Political Notebook blog.

Oh, and before we forget, taxpayers forked over the tab for the government Challenger jet, RCMP security and other expenses to Harper could attend a provincial political fundraiser.



This issue was bound to come up sooner or later, and rightfully so. The CPC hounded the Liberals in past years for their partisan use of the Challenger.

The right thing to do is for the party to cover the costs of the jet's use when used to attend partisan events. The practice of scheduling other government business to coincide with party events is a thin veneer of credibility. The costs should be split between the taxpayers and the government. Harper's latest visit to Toronto as mentioned above would be a case in point. Not knowing what other business Harper did in Toronto I would say that this visit would be split something like 90% for the party and 10% by the taxpayers.

The Prime Minister has no choice but to travel on the challenger due to security concerns. That being said, there's no reason why the taxpayers should be picking up the tab for trips that are mainly partisan related. At the very least, the party should be reimbursing taxpayers an amount equal to what the trip would have cost if commercial air was used.