Boutilier: 600 billion reasons why Trudeau is a mistake

Who remembers Bev Oda and the infamous orange juice scandal?

Bev Oda was forced to repay a few thousand dollars in expenses back in 2012 for some irresponsible spending on a 2011 trip, but the controversy mainly hinged on a $16 glass of orange juice she charged taxpayers for.

This $16 glass of orange juice became the focal point of a campaign demanding she resign from her position, which she shamefully did on July 3rd, 2012.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending Oda or her out of control spending. But the controversy surrounding Oda pales in comparison to what’s been happening in Canadian politics.

Let's look at a few examples, shall we.

At the end of 2019, Trudeau’s 16 day trip to Costa Rica cost Canadian Taxpayers $196,137. That is approximately 4 times what the cost should have been due to unnecessary travel back and forth.

In 2018 Trudeau went on a trip to India with a delegation costing taxpayers over $1.6 million. Part of this bill was $17,000 to fly a celebrity chef from Canada to India to cook a couple of meals for Trudeau and his guests as well as another $3500 for hockey jerseys.

Back in 2016 Trudeau racked up a bill of $215,000 for a trip to the Bahamas to see his good friend Aga Khan, which was deemed an ethics violation.

And let’s not even get started on the $900 million WE scandal.

But these few examples of irresponsible spending are peanuts compared to the gigantic economic hole Trudeau has dug for Canadians.

In 2020 Trudeau is estimated to have run a deficit of around $380 billion and is expected to run another $120 billion deficit in 2021. This combined with the approximately $80 billion in deficits from 2016 to 2019 has almost doubled Canada’s total debt.

That’s right, in almost 150 years Canada had accumulated approximately $615 billion in debt, and from 2016 to the end of 2021 it is projected to have increased by another $580 billion.

To put it simply, Trudeau’s deficits are about as large as the 22 prime ministers who served before him since 1867 combined.

I wonder how many “$16 glass of orange juice” type of expenditures there are in that bill?

And that Canada, is why you don’t elect a snowboard instructor to run your country.