‘Politicians shouldn’t take family on govt business even if they pay for it themselves’

COFFEE WITH THE ARMCHAIR MAYOR — I’ve always sympathized with politicians who have to spend time away from their families, and have never had a problem with them taking family members on trips when conducting government business.

I’ve just never thought the taxpayers should have to pay for it.

Terry Kading, a political scientist at TRU, sees it differently — he thinks politicians should schedule vacation time and leave the family at home when travelling on anything to do with their political job.

“I think that should be of your own expenses and on a separate trip,” he told me during a conversation taped for Coffee With the Armchair Mayor on CBC Daybreak Kamloops.

He says business travel and vacation travel simply should not mix.

That would mean not only ending the whole system in which provincial and federal politicians can take designated family members with them, but leaving them home when they’re going to conferences and whatnot.

Politicans have been under the microscope lately for behaving badly. There are the Redfords, Kwans and Reids, of course, and we’re used to senators and their families going business class. One Tory MP’s wife spent more tax money on travel that he did.

Canadians aren’t the only offenders, either. U.S. President Barack Obama has been taking heat for his family’s stupendous travel bills, close to a billion dollars worth. The wife and kids just got back from China. And when Obama goes anywhere, the bills for the entourage are impressive, including $181,000-an-hour flight-time costs for his 747.

Yesterday, the day Kading and I sat down for coffee, MP Eve Adams was in the news again, this time for a video showing her blocking the exits of several other vehicles because she was unhappy with a car wash and wanted her money back.

The $6 carwash tantrum outshines even Bev Oda’s $16 glass of orange juice for politicians’ excess. She later apologized, the last refuge for a politician who can’t deny something happened.

Whether it’s travel, orange juice or shakeups in the prime minister’s office, Kading admitted our elected reps give political scientists plenty to talk about in class, but their actions often detract from real issues. Poor personal spending habits leave the impression they just aren’t good with money.

“It really reinforces the perception that government can’t handle our money,” he said, speculating that because politicians are surrounded by huge sums of money as a part of their jobs, they start thinking that a few thousand dollars for personal comfort here and there isn’t a big deal.

But I pointed out that whenever they get caught they quickly offer to pay it back. Maybe we should just put it in writing, I suggested. Call it An Act to Allow Politicians to Repay Money They Never Should Have Spent, Economic Development and Environmental Enhancement, or some such omnibus bill the Conservatives like to come up with.

Kading speculates another reason lesser politicians get in dutch is that there’s so much attention on the party leaders that they just think nobody will pay attention to them.

The best answer, Kading thinks, is for civil servants to have stricter rules and a system to more carefully vet travel expenses ahead of time.

That won’t stop incidents at the car wash, but it might avoid a few trips to Disneyland or zoos in South Africa.