Article content continued

The rules, set by an all-party committee of MPs, allow each member of Parliament to designate one person — usually, but not always, a spouse — with whom they can share their “travel points,” which allow them to take free flights around the country.

The report doesn’t break down individual trips, so it’s not possible to know in each case where individual MPs went with their designated travellers, but most of the money was spent flying MPs and their spouses back and forth between Ottawa and their ridings.

Former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae, who had the largest claim, travelled widely with his wife, Arlene Perly Rae, racking up $56,919.57 in charges for 20 return trips from Toronto to Ottawa and four trips to other Canadian destinations.

Rae said in an email that the Liberal Party covered political trips, but trips “that involved work as MP and interim leader” were covered from his MP budget.

“Being leader of the third party is tough enough without having to do it alone!” he wrote. “The purpose of the designated traveller allotment is to show Parliament is a family-friendly place, and a political life is not necessarily a recipe for travelling far and wide alone. End of story.”

The MP with the second-highest spousal travel expense was Richard Harris, Conservative MP for the British Columbia riding of Cariboo-Prince George, whose spouse, Anne Phillips, took eight trips to Ottawa and five elsewhere in Canada at a cost of $51,773.63. Harris did not respond to requests for comment.