Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 31/10/2010 (3622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

OTTAWA -- Last week, the House of Commons released the most detailed report ever on the expenses claimed by Canada's 308 MPs.

So now we can see exactly what MPs spent on the hated 10 per-centers.

What still is not available is what the money was actually spent on.

It means there is no way to know why Steven Fletcher's phone bills were nearly $15,000 higher than any other Manitoba MP's last year or why Shelly Glover spent more than $11,000 on stationery and printing while Merv Tweed only spent $150.

Why is Pat Martin's MP travel bill $131,693 despite having the smallest riding in terms of area, when Niki Ashton spent $30,000 less on travel and has the biggest riding?

How did Jim Maloway keep his travel bills under $50,000 while most MPs in Manitoba spent more than twice that amount?

Was Ashton able to get four householders out (the maximum permitted per year) to all her constituents for $5,563 while Rod Bruinooge sent four for $26,687? Or did Ashton not send all four householders?

Despite the spending scandals that have plagued politicians' expenses accounts elsewhere -- such as the now infamous moat cleaning paid for by British taxpayers or the video games and camera equipment Nova Scotia taxpayers bought some MLAs -- Canada's MPs still think we should trust them.

It is perhaps one of the only things on which all four parties can agree. They claim getting improper claims through is nearly impossible -- except apparently for two Liberal MPs who improperly claimed rent paid for Ottawa residences owned by their spouse or children. They were ordered last week to pay back the treasury $80,000 and $60,000 after a media investigation uncovered the problem.

Considering how often politicians have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, few should be willing to just trust their MPs to be honest.

Besides, the harder they fight against releasing the information, the more one has to wonder what MPs have to hide.

Ex-MPs lose bids

FORMER MPs Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Inky Mark last week both saw their decisions to leave Ottawa in favour of municipal politics end in failure.

Now they have to sit by and watch the races to fill their old federal seats.

Mark is likely to watch his party cruise to victory in his old riding of Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette. Former Winnipeg Free Press hunting columnist Robert Sopuck won't face much of a challenge there. The Liberals don't even have a candidate yet.

But Wasylycia-Leis may end up watching her decision to run for Winnipeg mayor result in her party losing her seat. It will be a tight contest between NDP Kevin Chief and Liberal Kevin Lamoureux.

When the byelections were announced last week, the Conservatives claimed to believe the Liberals would take two of the three seats up for grabs. (The third is in Ontario where long-time Liberal MP Maurizio Bevilacqua stepped down to run for mayor of Vaughan, Ont.)

Do the Conservatives really think that? Or did they say it to pressure Ignatieff and make him appear a failure if Liberals don't win two of the three seats?

The Liberals do have a strong chance in Winnipeg North. Lamoureux is a hard-working, street-wise politician and he wins provincially despite incredibly low levels of support for the party as a whole. That's in large part due to his diligence with the minority communities in the riding, namely Filipino and South Asian.

But in late September 2008, Tory Ray Larkin stepped aside as the proposed candidate in favour of Winnipeg critical care nurse Julie Javier. The cynics see it as the Conservatives working to steal votes from Lamoureux by putting up a Filipina candidate. If so, the Conservatives should remember that Filipino voters in Winnipeg North do not automatically vote for someone just because they are Filipino. Just ask former Liberal cabinet minister Rey Pagtakhan, who lost the riding to Wasylycia-Leis in 2004. Or his nephew, Winnipeg Coun. Mike Pagtakhan, who lost the Liberal nomination to Lamoureux.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca