Comments on: Charitable Events That Go Bust, Traffic Infractions and How It’s Not the Act, But Who Commits it

By: ck

ck — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 01:16:49 +0000

Actually, I can name 2 Con senators who do public speaking gigs for money — Jacques Demers and Larry Senator Touchdown Smith.

Anyway, as you may have heard, the indignance of the Grace Foundation and it’s board of directors has been outted as partisan conservative. The MP in the area, Rob Moore, has ties. The letter was released from PMO. And as mentioned, I personally don’t believe MPs or senators should be moonlighting (with the exception of those who are Doctors and nurses or other trades that require logged hours to maintain their licenses–never know when they’ll be voted out, right?), but it’s legal. Plus the Grace Foundation should’ve aired their grievances sooner — not 9 months to a year after the fact. Another thing, if the events get low turn-out, that’s not Justin’ or any speaker’s fault. He fulfilled his part of the bargain which is to speak at an event.

By: Birdy& Bambi

Birdy& Bambi — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:45:19 +0000

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Bambi

By: Erik T

Erik T — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:08:35 +0000

I know politicians of all stripes have regularly been featured guests at various events. I think Justin should have been quicker to offer a refund to the New Brunswick charity since he was obviously thinking about running for Liberal leader and presumably didn’t need the money that badly.
Some charities are money machines. Some are right wing think tanks. If they are booking fund raising events as business ventures, they presumably are taking a risk in search of a profit. Nothing wrong with that, so I don’t see why M.P.’s should be disqualified from charging fees for churching up a crowd at a fundraiser. It seems tacky for Justin Trudeau to have taken the money and ran, but it’s his right. Conrad Black gets paid to speak. So does Preston Manning. Indeed, I wonder how many sitting M.P.’s, Senators and other political pros have sidelines in public speaking engagements? I just saw Stephen Harper on CBC Newsworld (can’t remember the ‘new’ name) voicing self righteous distaste for Trudeau’s public speaking dollars, but I’d bet there are a few folks from his party doing the same thing.
.
By the way, I am not trying to sound cynical about charities- some are shoe string operations, some do great work, some are well endowed power houses, and some, like the Fraser Institute, do not deserve to call themselves charities when they function as virtual consulting firms for big business and Conservative governments. If I hire a band for my fundraiser, whether or not it’s a good cause, I am on the hook to pay them even if the event flops.

By: ron wilton

ron wilton — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:34:01 +0000

Now that the source of the letter asking for the $20 thousand refund has been traced back to the wife(who works for the Grace foundation) of a con insider, this thing should blow up in the faces of the ‘holier than thou’ harpercons.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2013/06/the-not-so-purloined-letter-who-tipped-pmo-off-to-the-grace-foundation-complaint.html

By: myna lee johnstone

myna lee johnstone — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:59:55 +0000

sure they can just have their expenses paid and preferably be frugal about it
as for Mulcair, that smacks of entitlement Also, these MPs should be role models using public transit to come and go or if they hve failed to adjust their timimg then take a taxi