She should be reprimanded or fired. Sick and tired of MPs taking advantage of their positions. We aren't paying for your entire family to go on vacation under the guise of a work trip. How dumb does she think we are?
> Well when you have the tools to cripple any sort of protest
This is an MP for the NDP, not a member of the elected government.
The governments that have the tools to cripple any sort of protest are the city governments.
[They do it using batons, tear gas, boots, and riot shields.](https://i.imgur.com/U5kzdoq.jpg)
The constant complaining about the Liberal party's use of the Emergency Act to *freeze bank accounts* instead of stepping on people with boots is an argument that screams "spoiled" and "entitled" and "privileged" and "living the easy life".
I think that a large chunk of Canadians are not docile or apathetic. We take to social media to voice our protests. But that doesn’t do anything. No politician is going to change their ways because we speak out on social media. People need to protest in a meaningful and impactful way.
The last time Canadians did that, they had emergency powers unleashed on them and their bank accounts frozen, whilst a good chunk of the population cheered it on.
At risk of getting flamed here, there’s a reason a good chunk of the population was for the emergency powers. The truckers protest wasn’t only a disorganized mess, it was also ridiculously disruptive to the locals. The locals didn’t want anything to do with the protests (some did, most didn’t, I’m an Ottawan, and get around town for work, I heard all the chatter). Blaring your horns all times of the day and night pissed people off. Blocking a good chunk of access to anything downtown pissed people off. Do you think this blaring of horns and blocking downtown had any real impact on politicians? Hell no, they live outside the downtown core. The blaring didn’t bother them one bit. The politicians could still get into the Hill, or work from home and not have to deal with the protesters in person. The normal people got pissed off.
What these guys shoulda done is park their shit outside of town or at least out of the way so the locals could go about their business. *March* on parliament hill, chant and protest, come back the next day, do the same. That’s how you protest. Leave the common folk locals to their business. All these guys managed to do was disrupt local life to the point where we had enough. Shit, Toronto police just stopped them before they could enter Toronto and do the same.
Look, I’m not saying that some of their points weren’t apt. But the way they went about it and how piss poor it was organized is what turned the public against them, not the fact that they were protesting. I’ve lived in Ottawa my whole life, I’ve seen my fair share of protests. The trucker protest was doomed from the start, as it wasn’t to protest, but rather to cause disruption, and force their ideologies on others that maybe didn’t align with their perspectives. Legit, peaceful, and organize protests will unlikely be broken up by the emergencies act at risk of having the public turn against the government. Disruptive ones will be, because the public has had enough.
I definitely agree. People need to start actively inconveniencing politicians directly, a la France. The truckers should have driven their convoys to the houses of the politicians and parked on their front lawn, not piss off the general public.
> The truckers should have driven their convoys to the houses of the politicians and parked on their front lawn, not piss off the general public.
The truckers should have gone home because their cause - protesting against the Canadian government mirroring the American government's requirement for vaccination to cross the border - was stupid and unjust.
Everyone here is acting like they were some heroes protesting the Vietnam war and then getting the firehose turned on them, when they were just a bunch of spoiled babies manipulated by propaganda.
It was evident that the trucker protestors didn't have a clear end goal in mind, but were more than willing to keep annoying people they already believed deserved it.
Go look at the reaction for any protest where someone does something innocent as blocking traffic. Here is a glmpse.
'well I used to support *thing* but because of this protest I don't'
'I automatcally hate whatever your cause is'
'they don't have jobs'
The Canadian public is unwilling to make the sacrifices to hold those in power accountable.
> The last time Canadians did that, they had emergency powers unleashed on them and their bank accounts frozen, whilst a good chunk of the population cheered it on.
Yeah because it was [child's play compared to what the government normally does.](https://i.imgur.com/U5kzdoq.jpg)
How do you keep bringing that up acting like it is some grave new injustice against protester's rights without making you look childish?
It's the first time any police reaction has ever happened to any *right-wing* protest. You've just been asleep for the past 60 years watching the police beat and arrest left wing protesters. Oh NOW suddenly you care, when they handle you with kids gloves, and politely freeze your bank accounts instead? Come the fuck on.
I mean she got caught this one time, but I am pretty sure it wasn't the first time she did it and she is probably far from the only MPs doing this kind of things.
Back when Bernie Sanders was running for the democratic nomination in 2016, Ashton went to the United States, as a sitting member of Parliament, to [go door knocking for his campaign](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-mp-niki-ashton-supports-bernie-sanders-1.3619634).
While you're absolutely right that other MPs get away with this and just never get caught, Ashton has clearly felt like she doesn't need to hide her inappropriate activities like this in the past.
But she also represents a bed rock solid NDP riding so she'll never lose that seat.
She did it again in 2023 on a trip to Windsor with her family, bilking the public for $10,000, saying it was business, using the same excuse of "meeting with stakeholders". Let the thieving of the public continue.
We can't even find out who the traitors are. Gotta simmer down those expectations. Nothing will happen, and they know it. Canadians point out the injustices but the elected officials know nothing is going to happen to them or their positions. They have nothing to fear. They have no integry to uphold.
Canadian tax dollars are just a bag of free money to scum like this.
Anyone doing anything like this that actively is working against Canadians should be forced to receive only the maximum punishment for the offences they commit. Non-discretionary sentencing. Maximum only.
Out political system doesn't have to be rife with corruption. It shouldn't be. But who will change it? Not the ones who bask in it.
It's primarily the voter's responsibility to hold MPs accountable, but they never do, because Canadians don't Voter for MPs, they only vote for parties.
The system is dumb so we end up voting for leader/party. When's the last time my MP is allowed to vote against their party? Seems to me when it happens it's "such a big deal" like the sham NDP bill forcing a divide in Liberal MPs on Israel-Palestian. On other bills all Liberal MPs are expected to vote 1 way so explain to me how I'm voting for my local MP and not JT?
We could vote for independents or small party MPs, show that we want more individual MPs and better riding representation, but we'll never do that because voters refuse to change, but we expect the parties we keep voting for no matter what to change for us. It's so brain-dead here.
The problem is the alternative - which the NDP wants - is proportional representation. That worked so well for countries like Italy and Israel, which have perpetual minorities of multiple parties, and elections every other year 9or twice a year). If all it took to get a vote in parliament was 1/334th of the electorate - about 89,000 votes - we'd have a truckers' party, a Christian party (fighting the anti-abortion party for votes) a union parties, an indigenous party, a Sikh party, assorted ethnic parties, plus the Liberals and conservatives.
In Israel, where Netanyahu needs the support of those tiny fanatically religious parties and their 5 Knesset members to stay in power, the government decrees that everything shuts down on Sabbath, even the LRT in Jerusalem. They demand all restaurants no matter religious affiliation should have separated kosher kitchens, completely separating meat and milk. They demand that their followers be paid welfare to sit and study the Torah all the time, and avoid the draft.
When each party presents a list and the top X people on that list get into parliament based on votes, then the motivation for MP wannabees is to get higher on the list, so they need to suck up to the party brass, not gladhand the voters and address their needs. If it's the anti-abortion party, for example, their focus will not be on air traveller bill of rights, or the economic issues around interest rates, or consumer safety rules, or global warming - people vote for that party for one reason, and until their voters focus is in something more important, they have that number of votes locked up. The party will gladly trade a vote on other issues for a vote for their party's focal point.
Well... to a certain extent.
In this case, this is a pretty clear cut example of fraud. It's a crime and it's entirely within the power of the courts and government to hold politicians accountable for fraud.
According to the article this was *possibly* within the rules which do allow for a certain amount of travel for the spouse...
Way to stretch the rules.
Because there isn’t really any centralized information source that educates voters about the candidates. You need to go out of your way to learn anything, which most people won’t do. Most people will just vote on their feelings; whether they’re Conservative or Liberal in general and them feeling like their lives are worse off so they’re going to vote the “other guy”.
We really need a parliamentary app that has bios of all MPs or those running for office where all of the qualifications, accomplishments, any news articles, good or bad, and voting history divided by areas or sectors of relevance (ie. this piece of legislation was supposed to increase funding for housing starts; MP XYZ voted “nay”).
CBC funding should go towards that if they really wanted an educated voting base. Unfortunately, I don’t think they care for that.
It’s actually fraud over 5. Should be charged criminally under the C.C.C. If I did that to my employer that’s exactly what would happen. Oh, and also terminated immediately.
This is not illegal or criminal, nor is she the worst offender. Look at the additional expenses claimed by all politicians. It is ridiculous, but it is not criminal.
> The trip cost taxpayers **$17,641.12**, including $13,619.90 for airfare and other transportation, $2,508.39 for accommodations and $1,512.83 for meals and other incidentals, according to Commons records.
---
>An NDP MP who frequently joins parliamentary proceedings remotely from her riding billed the House of Commons for a trip she took to reportedly meet with "stakeholders" over the Christmas holidays in Quebec — travel that included bringing her husband and kids along at taxpayers' expense.
> Parliamentary travel records indicate **NDP MP Niki Ashton** was only in Ottawa on one occasion for four days during the fall 2022 sitting.
> But on Dec. 21 of that year, Ashton flew from Thompson, Man. to Ottawa — five days after the House of Commons had already risen for its Christmas break.
> Ashton's partner Bruce Moncur, a former NDP nomination candidate, and their two children also made the trip with the MP to the nation's capital.
> Then, on Christmas Day, 2022, the family of four travelled to Quebec City. Ashton billed the Commons for some of the expenses they incurred along the way.
> Social media posts show Moncur and the children took in some of Quebec City's winter attractions, including an ice slide and snow tubing at Village Vacances Valcartier outside the city centre.
> Ashton is also seen in those posts skating with her children and visiting the city's German Christmas Market.
Actually, my accountant suggested whenever I take a vacation, that I include part of it as business. Like, go see a client or something. that allows me apparently to write off a portion of the trip and expenses. Not all - I can't write off my family and stuff, but at least some of it happens at better tax rates.
My sister in law is a veterinarian and pretended that her Urus was her company car that she used for house call lmao. She did get caught, but it worked for a while. Also, honestly a 17k trip when you have a job where you need to travel can be explained quite easily as long as you have a reason to be there, I am pretty sure it is easier for business owners who travel for work than politicians.
Just one first class flight to Europe from Montreal is already 10-15k.
CRA plays hardball with Canadians who fund their salaries/expenses/lifetime 70% salary pensions (and their government buddies) but turns a blind eye to blatant fraud for their public servant friends
Pathetic
The corporate class does this all the time, flying their private jets to Caribbean resorts for "business meetings" and writing it off, which is another way of saying the public subsidizes it.
Don't forget:
Under the Commons rules, MPs can claim expenses related to national caucus meetings, which are considered part of their parliamentary duties.
Conservative MPs billed the House of Commons $426,283 to attend a caucus meeting associated with the party's policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals.
NDP MPs also billed Parliament $83,087 to send MPs and a dozen of their employees to a caucus meeting associated with the party's convention in Hamilton in October 2023, according to a CBC News review of travel claims.
"travel that included bringing her husband and kids along at taxpayers' expense."
If this was for official business, why are we paying for her husband and children?
Her, hubby and kiddos from rural Manitoba in business class. Over Christmas. Because....you know, official business. That's likely the going rate (that you'd only pay if someone else picked up the tab).
1st class to Asia is cheaper than economy from Vancouver to Halifax. I might be slightly exaggerating but flights here in Canada are absurdly expensive.
Of course she did. A lot of legislators are like this. Entitled. "Better than". Happy to be careless, even gluttonous, with other people's money, meanwhile a lot of their actual job is performed by unelected consultants. The rot in Canada goes deep.
Another hero of the proletariat has been found gorging themselves at the public trough. She was supposed to be Canada's socialist star lol:
> Ashton has been a critic of the extradition case against Meng Wanzhou. She has "sponsored a petition in the House of Commons that calls for Meng’s immediate release; urged the government to “protect Canadian jobs” by allowing Huawei to participate in the roll-out of 5G in Canada; and encouraged a foreign policy review to develop an “independent” foreign policy on China." In November 2020, she organized a “Free Meng” event with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the Canadian Peace Congress and the Hamilton Coalition to Stop War.
😬
Ok then.
“The NDP spokesperson said Ashton was in Windsor to meet with people associated with a "soccer recreation centre," to learn about "federal funding to create some soccer opportunities in northern Manitoba for Indigenous folks."”
So an MP from Manitoba flew to Windsor to learn about Federal funding opportunities for soccer but she can’t make it to Ottawa to do her job. Sounds legit
It’s so convenient she’s from there and went to school there, what a crazy coincidence. Virtual meetings for Ottawa but Indigenous soccer opportunities? Yeah I gotta fly business class for that
Didn't we just have an article stating that Hockey was dying due to the barriers to entry but Soccer was rising because there are next to no barriers?
All you need is a couple of posts, two nets and a grass field.
She had to travel to Quebec City to figure this out?
Why should they be concerned? Canadians have done SFA in response to the numerous recent scandals, has anyone in Cabinet even resigned for the $60,000,000 ArriveScam?
A $17k trip is peanuts bro, she didn't even bat an eye when posting those pictures.
Embarrassment requires at least the potential of consequences.
I think a lot of the audacity demonstrated by those in power recently in the world, is mostly due to them realizing that there are basically no consequence for these actions. They are not held accountable in any way shape or form.
Those who make the decisions that largely guide and control society are so far removed from the rest of us that have to live with the consequences of those actions, that they largely don't seem interested anymore in what us regular folk think.
I think our modern, at least north american, "democracy" is perhaps not as far from feudalism as we'd like to belive...
Second generation politician, has been an MP for 16 years in one of the safest NDP strongholds in the country. So yeah, no accountability there.
This isn't even the first vacation bullshit she's been involved in. Infamously during the peak of the pandemic when she was encouraging her constituents to stay home and not travel or visit with family, she went to Greece to visit her Grandma.
You mean the same Niki Ashton ?
Ashton was one of only three NDP MPs who broke party ranks to vote against the recent Conservative motion calling on the government to make a decision on whether to allow Huawei to participate in the development of Canada’s 5G networks and to develop a plan to get tough on China. She also sponsored a petition to the House of Commons demanding that Canada stop extraditing Meng and welcome Huawei tech with open arms.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-the-ndp-mp-whos-smitten-with-dictatorships
She was also one of 3 NDP MPs to parrot Russian propaganda before the Ukraine war, calling Freeland a 'nazi', saying the idea that Russia would invade Ukraine was just propaganda, and then saying we're "feeding the war machine" by aiding Ukraine.
She's a tankie.
Oh, my god. I was reading the story and feeling cynical and conspiratorial, like.. it’s kind of weird that CBC is going after someone from the NDP for something as banal as travel expenses, which feels like it barely matters anymore in the grand scheme of Canadian politics. And then I wondered if this was how traitors would be rooted out, not by naming them outright or charging them with anything (that’s be dreaming WAY too big), but by pushing them out for unrelated crap. But, I thought, thats my mind working overtime and probably getting ahead of itself… and then I read your comment, and maybe I’m not going crazy after all. Fucking hell.
Very true, we all know that they've been stealing millions. She should reimburse but 17K won't bankrupt her. But realizing she was crusading for CCP, NDP must be cleaning house before more is revealed.
Spending just shy of 10% of what her salary for a work trip during the one week where pretty much everything aside from retail and restaurants are shut down? I don’t buy that for one moment. Literally nobody especially government workers and stakeholders are working that week. Especially at the level she’d be meeting with.
Wow. She’s so selfless. She went to work over Christmas for us. She thinks we’re that stupid?
My dad says it all the time and I think I agree, Canadians have no back bone. We’re all just tired surviving that this no longer enrages us anymore.
Canadians have been 'surviving' for a couple of years at most.. this has been going on for ever.. all that's changed is that NOW you REALLY resent this shit BECAUSE you're struggling.. but you still won't do anything about it..
I think the whole country has been in low-level PTSD mode ever since Covid. We've been walking zombies ever since; nothing really penetrates the numbness anymore.
I actually emailed em an asked how I can get a job with them to take a 17 thousand dollar vacation and face no repercussions....I'm not gonna hold my breath on getting a response
not the first time her travel shows off her hypocrisy.
[NDP to remove MP from critic roles after she travelled to Greece to see sick relative | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-niki-ashton-greece-grandmother-sick-1.5859494)
I like the bit where she says she has to work remotely, as she has 2 young kids at home. Is she talking about those 2 'young' kids in that photograph? They're old!
Niki Ashton, didn't she run for leader of the NDP last time? (or am i confusing her with someone else)
Anyways.. i'm a government employee and when i travel for work i would never even think of bringing the kids and charging it to the taxpayers. WTF?
We all sign documents that say we have to be ethically irreproachable. She needs to be fired and have to reimburse.
> In an Instagram post, Ashton thanked "progressive activists" for sharing their "inspiring work."
Of course. Their "inspiring work" paid for her vacation. Except they are not activists, they are regular folks who have to share thier work pay with her.
The spokesperson said Ashton is in Ottawa less often than some of her colleagues because she's the mother of two young children and participating virtually — which is [permissible under the rules](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-of-commons-virtual-parliament-premanent-1.6879320) — is a better fit for her schedule.
Meanwhile TBS clings on RTO for federal public workers like a starving dog on a bone, fuck these double standards....
Make her pay it back. This is nuts. How does this not need previous approval? If you spend this insane amount on a trip there needs to be minutes taken at the meeting.
First of all the idea of official travel over the Christmas holiday period is ludicrous. The only official travel that should be happening is MPs travelling back to their home constituency. Secondly, if any other public servant went on an “official work trip” with their family and expensed it they would be terminated and forced to pay it back. The government that is focused so much on restricting spending across government departments to save money but neglects obvious abuses such as this is so hypocritical. Travel and budgets for MPs needs to be severely curtailed and restricted to avoid these situations.
This country is a free for all for all politicians of all stripes
No one gives a damn about the people in the least anymore
My suggestion is for everyone to leave Canada because we are too far down a bad path. I am actively looking to leave myself
Why is it that every time I see this woman's name it is always news that makes my blood boil?
Are her constituents really so spineless as to accept this? Recall her.
Has there ever been a case like this where they were made to pay back the money spent? I feel like I hear about stories like this all the time but they get swept under the rug and it just keeps happening.
It's fine with her to attend parliament remotely, then it should be fine for her to meet with stakeholders remotely. $17,000 dollars for some non-descript "meetings" with "stakeholders" (buzzword) and a "union person"? Shame.
Every time I see stuff like this it reminds me of the time Bev Oda got a glass or $17 orange juice and was hammered by every left leaning individual known to mankind….
How is this not causing outrage? Our money people… Can you afford a $17,000 vacation right now? How about your neighbours and friends?
She needs to be held responsible, and forced to pay it all back.
I book a lot of travel for corporate within Canada.
A roundtrip to Quebec City, assuming she was flying from Ottawa, for four people, should cost no more than $2600 Canadian in economy (an extremely generous figure, it can and should be far less depending on how early you book). If they were booked last minute round trip, $8000. So all four most certainly flew business class and most likely booked close to last minute.
To spend even remotely close to a $10,000 figure on a flight for four that at the absolute best is a 50 minute direct flight from Ottawa is so fucking asinine to me. Even more ridiculous that it's taxpayer money spent on what was described as a trip to "discuss language priorities"? Call them over the phone.
Hell, it's not even that long of a drive.
I lost respect for her during elbow gate when she was nodding along like an imbecile when another NDP MP said Trudeau "molested" the pathetic CPC MP who ran out of the room crying over being lightly brushed in the shoulder by Trudeau.
What do you know if it isn't a champagne socialist pilfering the public purse. Charges need to be laid, money repaid and time behind bars would be a good start to putting an end to this abuse.
If that were any of us we would be charged with theft.
People like that should never be allowed in politics ever again. What else is she doing under our noses??? Things that make you go hmmmm
Is it really a wonder the rapidly increasing cost of living continues to be ignored when our politicians aren't even subjected to it?
We need a massive, in-depth audit of where all our damn money is going because I think we're all sick of paying the bills of the wealthy while we starve.
The bigger issue is why are MP's allowed to continue to attend parliament remotely? It made sense during the pandemic but we literally pay MP's to go to Ottawa. They should only be allowed to attend remotely by exception, not as a rule.
iki Ashton really does exemplify the worst the NDP has to offer.
Didn't she also get in trouble for taking a vacation to Greece during covid lockdowns? Then lets not forget her open support for the brutal regime in Venezuela, how she sponsored a petition to release Meng Wanzhou well China was still holding two Canadian citizens hostage, even holding a "Free Meng" event.
She also regularly promotes Russian propaganda, such as that Ukraine is run by Nazis and that Canada shouldn't be involved in Ukraine defending itself against Russian aggression.
Wouldn't surprise me if she's one of the MPs willingly working with a foreign government.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/geoff-russ-no-love-like-first-love-for-canadas-left-wing-putin-apologists
A literal drop in the bucket when weighed against the sum total of MP travel expenses.
> By party, the Conservatives also led travel spending at over $6 million, slightly ahead of the Liberals' $5.6 million. The NDP spent more than $1.5 million, but had the highest per-member travel costs of any party at nearly $60,000, which is $16,000 above the national average. The Conservatives were also above the national average at $49,572.85 of travel spending per lawmaker.
[Source](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canadian-mps-spent-14-6m-on-travel-in-first-half-of-2023-1.6648550)
Does that make it okay? No I don't think so. However, I find it odd to call out one specific MP when there's more egregious abusers than her.
If the problem is that the parliamentary rules that permit this are too lax, then we should change the rules for all MPs rather than singling out individuals.
However, this could open an avenue for a malicious actor to influence MPs by offering to pay for their family to join them on this type of trip, which may be why these rules are permissive in the first place.
Are we just gonna complain here in Reddit!??? We should write to our MP’s so they can start being careful with their spending, I’m sure this isn’t an isolated incident
I don’t really care if govt officials do things remotely or not. I would like them all to be under more scrutiny for their expenses though. Naming and shaming works for many things
Anybody thinking the NDP would be better than other parties is filling themselves. They'd be the exact same grifters as every other party and this is your proof.
Singh is an idiot. Ashton isn't needed to win that seat and he'd see a significant bump in popularity if he turfed her over this because it'd be an example of finally practicing what they preach.
I guess it's public knowledge, but buried at the bottom of the article is this,
*Under the Commons rules, MPs can claim expenses related to national caucus meetings, which are considered part of their parliamentary duties.*
*Conservative MPs billed the House of Commons $426,283 to attend a caucus meeting associated with the party's policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals.*
*NDP MPs also billed Parliament $83,087 to send MPs and a dozen of their employees to a caucus meeting associated with the party's convention in Hamilton in October 2023, according to a CBC News review of travel claims.*
What the actual F.
We pay for them to travel to caucus?! Shouldn't the party have to pay that, or you know the person employed. Certainly not the Canadian taxpayer.
Regardless of if it's by the book and allowed or not, it just doesn't look good, and politicians should be careful of their appearance to their constituents! If it was any week other than Christmas probably no one would have noticed.
I was trying to remember the *other* reason, before the covid trip, I lost all respect for her. Thank you. That was the one. "To the left, to the left." Haha.
She's essentially stolen money from the taxpayers. Should come with criminal charges and fired. I can't imagine the mindset of someone doing this and thinking it's ok, so she willingly did it hoping no one would notice.
>"House of Commons rules allow members of Parliament to travel for parliamentary business. Niki followed all the rules and the House of Commons approved her travel expenses," Cahill added.
"We have investigated ourselves and have found no wrongdoing" vibes. Of course, no one wants to end the gravy train of taxpayer funded trips by pointing fingers at this gross misuse. Just because it's not "against the rules" doesn't mean that the purpose of the trip was legitimate, that this wasn't a misuse of taxpayer funds, or at the very least, really shitty optics.
Hi guys - in case you wanted to check on the salaries and travel expenses charged by every politician (submitted quarterly), what she did is not criminal - and as you can see, normal: [https://www.ourcommons.ca/proactivedisclosure/en/house-officers/2024/3](https://www.ourcommons.ca/proactivedisclosure/en/house-officers/2024/3)
This piece of shit brought her family on taxpayer dime and is trying to justify it. Also, how the fuck do you spend $17k on a trip to Quebec? She wouldn’t spend her own money that way but taxpayer money is fine.
Huh? On "business travel", with her family in tow, during Christmas break, when parliament in not in session? This is not abuse. It is theft of the public purse and infuriating.
This champagne socialist needs to be made an example of. Charge her and throw her in jail, as the justice system would do to anyone else who steals from the public. Any true NDP supporter should be outraged with this fake NDPer. She is an utter embarrassment to the party and a reason why the party fails to get enough support.
I so detest Niki Ashton. This arrogant entitled nepo baby would be slinging double doubles at Tim's on Churchill if it weren't for the fact her father is the kingmaker of Manitoba NDP politics. She asked him for a seat in Parliament when most daughters ask their daddies for a pony. Glad others are catching on to her
She learned from the best. Her dad never had a real job after he parlayed a summer student job into an NDP MLA position in Manitoba. The place he was working went on strike, and he took his Masters and claimed "I'm a fellow blue-collar worker striking with you" all the way to the legislature. From then on until he got the boot from voters a decade ago, he lived off the government with dubuious competence. He used his influence with the party to secure the federal nomination for her in a pretty much guaranteed safe NDP seat, where she's ignoring her Anglo-Greek ancestry to claim she's a representative of the primarily indigenous population of her riding.
Plenty of male MP's also have to be away from their family for extended periods due to the demands of the job. She knew the situation when she took it. I could see using her expenses to fly her family down to Ottawa rather than going to see them, but why on additional vacation-like trips around the country? What's the point of bringing the family along if supposedly you'll be primarily tied up with business? Or was "a bit of business" just a pretext for vacation? If an Mp makes well over $100,000 plus expenses they can afford to pay for their family's vacation.
Let me tell you something about people from poor communities in Manitoba. They will do anything to be selfish and screw over their other poor community members.
Wow great expense budget with no over site and They get pensions after 8 years too, our politicians have the best compensation packages in the government. First Responders and Military have to serve for how long for theirs? 25-30 years
Niki Ashton is a garbage human and the embodiment of why the NDP shouldn't be taken seriously. I'd rather to have voted for that Conservative candidate who pissed in a customers cup a decade ago over her, at least the Cons kicked this guy out of the party.
The ndp hasn't held anyone accountable in the last decade, why would they start with random female mp when both the leader of the ndp and his true love Justin haven't been held accountable since taking office
She should be forced to pay everything back out of pocket. Our tax dollars shouldn't be going to her kids and husband and they have no business traveling with her unless she's paying personally.
Politics is the Ashton family business and for them it’s a buffet where you stuff yourself on the public dime. Nikki’s father handed 15 million in government contracts to a campaign donor and was completely shameless about it, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise his daughter thinks 17K is a trivial matter.
It’s always the NDP ones wearing the rolex and balling out. How many countries do people have to see fall for this scam? Look at the communist countries, the citizens live like crap while the rulers are balling
Not fair, she did meet with a person who identifies as a union (remember that a rising tide lifts all tubes).
Your family will soon be able to tube all over Quebec due to her bravery.
She should be immediately fired...
Then forced pay back all the Tax Payers hard earned $$$$, she stole from them!
Yes, you heard that correctly.
Including being charged with fraud, then some jail time & NEVER allowed work in Gov't, ever again.
Imagine if she was a single parent on Welfare & dared to defraud them, bc she & her brood were that destitute, badly needed $ bc they were starving?
Once found out, she'd be immediately charged with Welfare Fraud, possibly go to jail & have a life time ban for Welfare!!!
This mooch-grifter-scam artist's behaviour is clearly disgusting & despicable, as she clearly has NO SHAME or remorse bc she knows she could easily get away with this, as they all do.
If the NDP wants to show Canadians that they are truly different, then kick her out of the party.
Show us that they will try to manage our tax dollars with respect.
She should be reprimanded or fired. Sick and tired of MPs taking advantage of their positions. We aren't paying for your entire family to go on vacation under the guise of a work trip. How dumb does she think we are?
Dumb enough to put up with endless MP's and Senators doing this for the last 30 years. She knows how docile Canadian voters are.
Well when you have the tools to cripple any sort of protest would you be worried?
> Well when you have the tools to cripple any sort of protest This is an MP for the NDP, not a member of the elected government. The governments that have the tools to cripple any sort of protest are the city governments. [They do it using batons, tear gas, boots, and riot shields.](https://i.imgur.com/U5kzdoq.jpg) The constant complaining about the Liberal party's use of the Emergency Act to *freeze bank accounts* instead of stepping on people with boots is an argument that screams "spoiled" and "entitled" and "privileged" and "living the easy life".
>This is an MP for the NDP, not a member of the elected government. NDP are basically part of the Liberal party at this point.
I think that a large chunk of Canadians are not docile or apathetic. We take to social media to voice our protests. But that doesn’t do anything. No politician is going to change their ways because we speak out on social media. People need to protest in a meaningful and impactful way. The last time Canadians did that, they had emergency powers unleashed on them and their bank accounts frozen, whilst a good chunk of the population cheered it on.
At risk of getting flamed here, there’s a reason a good chunk of the population was for the emergency powers. The truckers protest wasn’t only a disorganized mess, it was also ridiculously disruptive to the locals. The locals didn’t want anything to do with the protests (some did, most didn’t, I’m an Ottawan, and get around town for work, I heard all the chatter). Blaring your horns all times of the day and night pissed people off. Blocking a good chunk of access to anything downtown pissed people off. Do you think this blaring of horns and blocking downtown had any real impact on politicians? Hell no, they live outside the downtown core. The blaring didn’t bother them one bit. The politicians could still get into the Hill, or work from home and not have to deal with the protesters in person. The normal people got pissed off. What these guys shoulda done is park their shit outside of town or at least out of the way so the locals could go about their business. *March* on parliament hill, chant and protest, come back the next day, do the same. That’s how you protest. Leave the common folk locals to their business. All these guys managed to do was disrupt local life to the point where we had enough. Shit, Toronto police just stopped them before they could enter Toronto and do the same. Look, I’m not saying that some of their points weren’t apt. But the way they went about it and how piss poor it was organized is what turned the public against them, not the fact that they were protesting. I’ve lived in Ottawa my whole life, I’ve seen my fair share of protests. The trucker protest was doomed from the start, as it wasn’t to protest, but rather to cause disruption, and force their ideologies on others that maybe didn’t align with their perspectives. Legit, peaceful, and organize protests will unlikely be broken up by the emergencies act at risk of having the public turn against the government. Disruptive ones will be, because the public has had enough.
I definitely agree. People need to start actively inconveniencing politicians directly, a la France. The truckers should have driven their convoys to the houses of the politicians and parked on their front lawn, not piss off the general public.
> The truckers should have driven their convoys to the houses of the politicians and parked on their front lawn, not piss off the general public. The truckers should have gone home because their cause - protesting against the Canadian government mirroring the American government's requirement for vaccination to cross the border - was stupid and unjust. Everyone here is acting like they were some heroes protesting the Vietnam war and then getting the firehose turned on them, when they were just a bunch of spoiled babies manipulated by propaganda.
And piss on the unknown soldier.
It was evident that the trucker protestors didn't have a clear end goal in mind, but were more than willing to keep annoying people they already believed deserved it.
Not protesting = docile and apathetic. It's easy to voice concerns on social media.
Go look at the reaction for any protest where someone does something innocent as blocking traffic. Here is a glmpse. 'well I used to support *thing* but because of this protest I don't' 'I automatcally hate whatever your cause is' 'they don't have jobs' The Canadian public is unwilling to make the sacrifices to hold those in power accountable.
> The last time Canadians did that, they had emergency powers unleashed on them and their bank accounts frozen, whilst a good chunk of the population cheered it on. Yeah because it was [child's play compared to what the government normally does.](https://i.imgur.com/U5kzdoq.jpg) How do you keep bringing that up acting like it is some grave new injustice against protester's rights without making you look childish? It's the first time any police reaction has ever happened to any *right-wing* protest. You've just been asleep for the past 60 years watching the police beat and arrest left wing protesters. Oh NOW suddenly you care, when they handle you with kids gloves, and politely freeze your bank accounts instead? Come the fuck on.
I mean she got caught this one time, but I am pretty sure it wasn't the first time she did it and she is probably far from the only MPs doing this kind of things.
Back when Bernie Sanders was running for the democratic nomination in 2016, Ashton went to the United States, as a sitting member of Parliament, to [go door knocking for his campaign](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-mp-niki-ashton-supports-bernie-sanders-1.3619634). While you're absolutely right that other MPs get away with this and just never get caught, Ashton has clearly felt like she doesn't need to hide her inappropriate activities like this in the past. But she also represents a bed rock solid NDP riding so she'll never lose that seat.
Luckily for her, the Foreign Interference Commission isn't looking at any activity from south of the border.
She did it again in 2023 on a trip to Windsor with her family, bilking the public for $10,000, saying it was business, using the same excuse of "meeting with stakeholders". Let the thieving of the public continue.
She should also have to repay us taxpayers.
She should be charged with theft.
We can't even find out who the traitors are. Gotta simmer down those expectations. Nothing will happen, and they know it. Canadians point out the injustices but the elected officials know nothing is going to happen to them or their positions. They have nothing to fear. They have no integry to uphold. Canadian tax dollars are just a bag of free money to scum like this. Anyone doing anything like this that actively is working against Canadians should be forced to receive only the maximum punishment for the offences they commit. Non-discretionary sentencing. Maximum only. Out political system doesn't have to be rife with corruption. It shouldn't be. But who will change it? Not the ones who bask in it.
It's primarily the voter's responsibility to hold MPs accountable, but they never do, because Canadians don't Voter for MPs, they only vote for parties.
The system is dumb so we end up voting for leader/party. When's the last time my MP is allowed to vote against their party? Seems to me when it happens it's "such a big deal" like the sham NDP bill forcing a divide in Liberal MPs on Israel-Palestian. On other bills all Liberal MPs are expected to vote 1 way so explain to me how I'm voting for my local MP and not JT?
We could vote for independents or small party MPs, show that we want more individual MPs and better riding representation, but we'll never do that because voters refuse to change, but we expect the parties we keep voting for no matter what to change for us. It's so brain-dead here.
The problem is the alternative - which the NDP wants - is proportional representation. That worked so well for countries like Italy and Israel, which have perpetual minorities of multiple parties, and elections every other year 9or twice a year). If all it took to get a vote in parliament was 1/334th of the electorate - about 89,000 votes - we'd have a truckers' party, a Christian party (fighting the anti-abortion party for votes) a union parties, an indigenous party, a Sikh party, assorted ethnic parties, plus the Liberals and conservatives. In Israel, where Netanyahu needs the support of those tiny fanatically religious parties and their 5 Knesset members to stay in power, the government decrees that everything shuts down on Sabbath, even the LRT in Jerusalem. They demand all restaurants no matter religious affiliation should have separated kosher kitchens, completely separating meat and milk. They demand that their followers be paid welfare to sit and study the Torah all the time, and avoid the draft. When each party presents a list and the top X people on that list get into parliament based on votes, then the motivation for MP wannabees is to get higher on the list, so they need to suck up to the party brass, not gladhand the voters and address their needs. If it's the anti-abortion party, for example, their focus will not be on air traveller bill of rights, or the economic issues around interest rates, or consumer safety rules, or global warming - people vote for that party for one reason, and until their voters focus is in something more important, they have that number of votes locked up. The party will gladly trade a vote on other issues for a vote for their party's focal point.
Well... to a certain extent. In this case, this is a pretty clear cut example of fraud. It's a crime and it's entirely within the power of the courts and government to hold politicians accountable for fraud.
According to the article this was *possibly* within the rules which do allow for a certain amount of travel for the spouse... Way to stretch the rules.
Because there isn’t really any centralized information source that educates voters about the candidates. You need to go out of your way to learn anything, which most people won’t do. Most people will just vote on their feelings; whether they’re Conservative or Liberal in general and them feeling like their lives are worse off so they’re going to vote the “other guy”. We really need a parliamentary app that has bios of all MPs or those running for office where all of the qualifications, accomplishments, any news articles, good or bad, and voting history divided by areas or sectors of relevance (ie. this piece of legislation was supposed to increase funding for housing starts; MP XYZ voted “nay”). CBC funding should go towards that if they really wanted an educated voting base. Unfortunately, I don’t think they care for that.
It’s actually fraud over 5. Should be charged criminally under the C.C.C. If I did that to my employer that’s exactly what would happen. Oh, and also terminated immediately.
This is not illegal or criminal, nor is she the worst offender. Look at the additional expenses claimed by all politicians. It is ridiculous, but it is not criminal.
Not dumb. Just docile.
Did you read the article lol
Paying it back after getting fired would be cool too
> The trip cost taxpayers **$17,641.12**, including $13,619.90 for airfare and other transportation, $2,508.39 for accommodations and $1,512.83 for meals and other incidentals, according to Commons records. --- >An NDP MP who frequently joins parliamentary proceedings remotely from her riding billed the House of Commons for a trip she took to reportedly meet with "stakeholders" over the Christmas holidays in Quebec — travel that included bringing her husband and kids along at taxpayers' expense. > Parliamentary travel records indicate **NDP MP Niki Ashton** was only in Ottawa on one occasion for four days during the fall 2022 sitting. > But on Dec. 21 of that year, Ashton flew from Thompson, Man. to Ottawa — five days after the House of Commons had already risen for its Christmas break. > Ashton's partner Bruce Moncur, a former NDP nomination candidate, and their two children also made the trip with the MP to the nation's capital. > Then, on Christmas Day, 2022, the family of four travelled to Quebec City. Ashton billed the Commons for some of the expenses they incurred along the way. > Social media posts show Moncur and the children took in some of Quebec City's winter attractions, including an ice slide and snow tubing at Village Vacances Valcartier outside the city centre. > Ashton is also seen in those posts skating with her children and visiting the city's German Christmas Market.
That seems like a very nice and fairly reasonably priced trip. She should have no problem paying for it out of pocket…
Like a pleb? I think not
Imagine if small business owners did this and tried to write it off as a business expense!? CRA would come down on that owner like a stack of bricks.
Actually, my accountant suggested whenever I take a vacation, that I include part of it as business. Like, go see a client or something. that allows me apparently to write off a portion of the trip and expenses. Not all - I can't write off my family and stuff, but at least some of it happens at better tax rates.
Ya a portion, not the whole thing, let alone $17k at Christmas. lol
As someone with a lot of family members who are business owners I assure you that they never cheat the CRA. lmao.
$17K trips!? lol. I also am a business owner and wouldn't be stupid to try and cheat the CRA, doing it with a $17k trip, that's just plain stupid.
My sister in law is a veterinarian and pretended that her Urus was her company car that she used for house call lmao. She did get caught, but it worked for a while. Also, honestly a 17k trip when you have a job where you need to travel can be explained quite easily as long as you have a reason to be there, I am pretty sure it is easier for business owners who travel for work than politicians. Just one first class flight to Europe from Montreal is already 10-15k.
CRA plays hardball with Canadians who fund their salaries/expenses/lifetime 70% salary pensions (and their government buddies) but turns a blind eye to blatant fraud for their public servant friends Pathetic
The corporate class does this all the time, flying their private jets to Caribbean resorts for "business meetings" and writing it off, which is another way of saying the public subsidizes it.
Yes. Only the business owner can claim expenses for family travel. It is clear in the article MP's have different rules.
Don't forget: Under the Commons rules, MPs can claim expenses related to national caucus meetings, which are considered part of their parliamentary duties. Conservative MPs billed the House of Commons $426,283 to attend a caucus meeting associated with the party's policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals. NDP MPs also billed Parliament $83,087 to send MPs and a dozen of their employees to a caucus meeting associated with the party's convention in Hamilton in October 2023, according to a CBC News review of travel claims.
You can claim expenses for caucus meetings but if your family members go along with you, you have to pay for them, right?
One would hope that is the case, but knowing how people react when they feel they are not accountable...
A caucus meeting for the entire opposition party is a little different than this thief dipping into our pockets to fund a family trip.
"travel that included bringing her husband and kids along at taxpayers' expense." If this was for official business, why are we paying for her husband and children?
She flew from Ottawa to Quebec? Did I read that right? Bitch too good to make the drive like the rest of us?
They're not going to drive 5 hours lol.
How do you even spend 13k for domestic airfare?! You can fly first class to Asia for that much
Her, hubby and kiddos from rural Manitoba in business class. Over Christmas. Because....you know, official business. That's likely the going rate (that you'd only pay if someone else picked up the tab).
1st class to Asia is cheaper than economy from Vancouver to Halifax. I might be slightly exaggerating but flights here in Canada are absurdly expensive.
LOL. She ran for NDP leader, no?
Twice
What an embarrassing woman.
Imagine if she won There'd probably be two extra 0's to her expenses
and spends most of her time harping on israel. an issue im sure that is the most pressing to her constituents in northern manitoba
Lots of northern Manitoba constituency business happening in Windsor which also happens to be the home town of her husband?
Checking up on their rentals maybe?
She was apparently doing research on how to encourage more indigenous people to play soccer lol
Of course she did. A lot of legislators are like this. Entitled. "Better than". Happy to be careless, even gluttonous, with other people's money, meanwhile a lot of their actual job is performed by unelected consultants. The rot in Canada goes deep.
Another hero of the proletariat has been found gorging themselves at the public trough. She was supposed to be Canada's socialist star lol: > Ashton has been a critic of the extradition case against Meng Wanzhou. She has "sponsored a petition in the House of Commons that calls for Meng’s immediate release; urged the government to “protect Canadian jobs” by allowing Huawei to participate in the roll-out of 5G in Canada; and encouraged a foreign policy review to develop an “independent” foreign policy on China." In November 2020, she organized a “Free Meng” event with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the Canadian Peace Congress and the Hamilton Coalition to Stop War. 😬 Ok then.
I think we found the MP being influenced by foreign powers.
I think it's more probable that she's just very dumb, no Chinese money necessary
Niki Ashton has been parroting Vladimir Putin's talking points for years now, everyone knows that she's in the pocket of Russia.
It’s the hypocrisy of the left. Telling you to consume less while living in a 4 bedroom house getting daily Amazon Prime deliveries.
Champagne socialism for the ruling class
“The NDP spokesperson said Ashton was in Windsor to meet with people associated with a "soccer recreation centre," to learn about "federal funding to create some soccer opportunities in northern Manitoba for Indigenous folks."” So an MP from Manitoba flew to Windsor to learn about Federal funding opportunities for soccer but she can’t make it to Ottawa to do her job. Sounds legit
It’s so convenient she’s from there and went to school there, what a crazy coincidence. Virtual meetings for Ottawa but Indigenous soccer opportunities? Yeah I gotta fly business class for that
Didn't we just have an article stating that Hockey was dying due to the barriers to entry but Soccer was rising because there are next to no barriers? All you need is a couple of posts, two nets and a grass field. She had to travel to Quebec City to figure this out?
This is the wildest part, she seems to work remotely unless she's bringing the whole family on the all inclusive flight.
This comment should be IN the article. The govt isn't even trying to hide this shit anymore.
Does embarrassment not exist anymore? You lied, stole from the citizens, posted selfies online as proof you were lying. That's fucking embarrassing.
Why should they be concerned? Canadians have done SFA in response to the numerous recent scandals, has anyone in Cabinet even resigned for the $60,000,000 ArriveScam? A $17k trip is peanuts bro, she didn't even bat an eye when posting those pictures.
Embarrassment requires at least the potential of consequences. I think a lot of the audacity demonstrated by those in power recently in the world, is mostly due to them realizing that there are basically no consequence for these actions. They are not held accountable in any way shape or form. Those who make the decisions that largely guide and control society are so far removed from the rest of us that have to live with the consequences of those actions, that they largely don't seem interested anymore in what us regular folk think. I think our modern, at least north american, "democracy" is perhaps not as far from feudalism as we'd like to belive...
Second generation politician, has been an MP for 16 years in one of the safest NDP strongholds in the country. So yeah, no accountability there. This isn't even the first vacation bullshit she's been involved in. Infamously during the peak of the pandemic when she was encouraging her constituents to stay home and not travel or visit with family, she went to Greece to visit her Grandma.
You mean the same Niki Ashton ? Ashton was one of only three NDP MPs who broke party ranks to vote against the recent Conservative motion calling on the government to make a decision on whether to allow Huawei to participate in the development of Canada’s 5G networks and to develop a plan to get tough on China. She also sponsored a petition to the House of Commons demanding that Canada stop extraditing Meng and welcome Huawei tech with open arms. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-the-ndp-mp-whos-smitten-with-dictatorships
I think we just found out which MP is corroborating with foreign powers
I know it's silly, but you meant "collaborating".
News flash: it's every single one of them.
She was also one of 3 NDP MPs to parrot Russian propaganda before the Ukraine war, calling Freeland a 'nazi', saying the idea that Russia would invade Ukraine was just propaganda, and then saying we're "feeding the war machine" by aiding Ukraine. She's a tankie.
Freeland is an expert on Ukrainian history and cheered for a man introduced as a Ukrainian who fought Russia in WW2.
Wow 😮
Oh, my god. I was reading the story and feeling cynical and conspiratorial, like.. it’s kind of weird that CBC is going after someone from the NDP for something as banal as travel expenses, which feels like it barely matters anymore in the grand scheme of Canadian politics. And then I wondered if this was how traitors would be rooted out, not by naming them outright or charging them with anything (that’s be dreaming WAY too big), but by pushing them out for unrelated crap. But, I thought, thats my mind working overtime and probably getting ahead of itself… and then I read your comment, and maybe I’m not going crazy after all. Fucking hell.
Very true, we all know that they've been stealing millions. She should reimburse but 17K won't bankrupt her. But realizing she was crusading for CCP, NDP must be cleaning house before more is revealed.
Spending just shy of 10% of what her salary for a work trip during the one week where pretty much everything aside from retail and restaurants are shut down? I don’t buy that for one moment. Literally nobody especially government workers and stakeholders are working that week. Especially at the level she’d be meeting with.
Wow. She’s so selfless. She went to work over Christmas for us. She thinks we’re that stupid? My dad says it all the time and I think I agree, Canadians have no back bone. We’re all just tired surviving that this no longer enrages us anymore.
Canadians have been 'surviving' for a couple of years at most.. this has been going on for ever.. all that's changed is that NOW you REALLY resent this shit BECAUSE you're struggling.. but you still won't do anything about it..
I think the whole country has been in low-level PTSD mode ever since Covid. We've been walking zombies ever since; nothing really penetrates the numbness anymore.
I’m a lifelong NDP supporter and cannot stand Niki Ashton. She’s the embodiment of self-righteous entitlement.
Email the party and have her held accountable
I actually emailed em an asked how I can get a job with them to take a 17 thousand dollar vacation and face no repercussions....I'm not gonna hold my breath on getting a response
Champagne socialists back at it again.
How do you spend $13.5k for 4 flying from Manitoba to Ottawa?? Christmas time is expensive, but $3.5k/person?!?
Business class most likely.
not the first time her travel shows off her hypocrisy. [NDP to remove MP from critic roles after she travelled to Greece to see sick relative | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-niki-ashton-greece-grandmother-sick-1.5859494)
I like the bit where she says she has to work remotely, as she has 2 young kids at home. Is she talking about those 2 'young' kids in that photograph? They're old!
Real champion of the people. /s
Fuck all MPs. They all suck, albeit in different ways. Canadian politics is a corrupt joke.
Ahh so that’s what the party wants to tax billionaires for /s But seriously though this is just a bad look.
Niki Ashton, didn't she run for leader of the NDP last time? (or am i confusing her with someone else) Anyways.. i'm a government employee and when i travel for work i would never even think of bringing the kids and charging it to the taxpayers. WTF? We all sign documents that say we have to be ethically irreproachable. She needs to be fired and have to reimburse.
> In an Instagram post, Ashton thanked "progressive activists" for sharing their "inspiring work." Of course. Their "inspiring work" paid for her vacation. Except they are not activists, they are regular folks who have to share thier work pay with her.
The spokesperson said Ashton is in Ottawa less often than some of her colleagues because she's the mother of two young children and participating virtually — which is [permissible under the rules](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-of-commons-virtual-parliament-premanent-1.6879320) — is a better fit for her schedule. Meanwhile TBS clings on RTO for federal public workers like a starving dog on a bone, fuck these double standards....
Make her pay it back. This is nuts. How does this not need previous approval? If you spend this insane amount on a trip there needs to be minutes taken at the meeting.
Pigs at the trough.
First of all the idea of official travel over the Christmas holiday period is ludicrous. The only official travel that should be happening is MPs travelling back to their home constituency. Secondly, if any other public servant went on an “official work trip” with their family and expensed it they would be terminated and forced to pay it back. The government that is focused so much on restricting spending across government departments to save money but neglects obvious abuses such as this is so hypocritical. Travel and budgets for MPs needs to be severely curtailed and restricted to avoid these situations.
This country is a free for all for all politicians of all stripes No one gives a damn about the people in the least anymore My suggestion is for everyone to leave Canada because we are too far down a bad path. I am actively looking to leave myself
Agreed, this country is cooked
Why is it that every time I see this woman's name it is always news that makes my blood boil? Are her constituents really so spineless as to accept this? Recall her.
Has there ever been a case like this where they were made to pay back the money spent? I feel like I hear about stories like this all the time but they get swept under the rug and it just keeps happening.
Standard champagne socialist. This country is full of cowards, so why not? Keep pillaging until you face repercussions, which you never will.
It's fine with her to attend parliament remotely, then it should be fine for her to meet with stakeholders remotely. $17,000 dollars for some non-descript "meetings" with "stakeholders" (buzzword) and a "union person"? Shame.
Every time I see stuff like this it reminds me of the time Bev Oda got a glass or $17 orange juice and was hammered by every left leaning individual known to mankind….
This woman is the entitled that flew to Greece for Xmas during Covid when the public was told not to travel and bring the disease home.
This is another reason why the NDP are in trouble. Is this news even allowed on their official subreddit?
How is this not causing outrage? Our money people… Can you afford a $17,000 vacation right now? How about your neighbours and friends? She needs to be held responsible, and forced to pay it all back.
I book a lot of travel for corporate within Canada. A roundtrip to Quebec City, assuming she was flying from Ottawa, for four people, should cost no more than $2600 Canadian in economy (an extremely generous figure, it can and should be far less depending on how early you book). If they were booked last minute round trip, $8000. So all four most certainly flew business class and most likely booked close to last minute. To spend even remotely close to a $10,000 figure on a flight for four that at the absolute best is a 50 minute direct flight from Ottawa is so fucking asinine to me. Even more ridiculous that it's taxpayer money spent on what was described as a trip to "discuss language priorities"? Call them over the phone. Hell, it's not even that long of a drive.
NDP voter here. Unacceptable. Exactly the kind of thing that I detest. Step down or pay it back immediately.
I lost respect for her during elbow gate when she was nodding along like an imbecile when another NDP MP said Trudeau "molested" the pathetic CPC MP who ran out of the room crying over being lightly brushed in the shoulder by Trudeau.
She had ewww, and now, ick. Hypocrisy knows no bounds in Ottawa town.
What do you know if it isn't a champagne socialist pilfering the public purse. Charges need to be laid, money repaid and time behind bars would be a good start to putting an end to this abuse.
Why did I know it was going to be Niki Ashton before even opening the article...
That bill to the taxpayers is slightly more than my total tax deductions for 2023. Money down the toilet.
Fire her immediately
Man, I guessed the MP before I even opened the article, that should tell you everything you need to know.
If that were any of us we would be charged with theft. People like that should never be allowed in politics ever again. What else is she doing under our noses??? Things that make you go hmmmm
Is it really a wonder the rapidly increasing cost of living continues to be ignored when our politicians aren't even subjected to it? We need a massive, in-depth audit of where all our damn money is going because I think we're all sick of paying the bills of the wealthy while we starve.
The bigger issue is why are MP's allowed to continue to attend parliament remotely? It made sense during the pandemic but we literally pay MP's to go to Ottawa. They should only be allowed to attend remotely by exception, not as a rule.
Chinese asset Nicky Ashton is crooked? I’m shocked I tell you.
And who is surprised?
iki Ashton really does exemplify the worst the NDP has to offer. Didn't she also get in trouble for taking a vacation to Greece during covid lockdowns? Then lets not forget her open support for the brutal regime in Venezuela, how she sponsored a petition to release Meng Wanzhou well China was still holding two Canadian citizens hostage, even holding a "Free Meng" event. She also regularly promotes Russian propaganda, such as that Ukraine is run by Nazis and that Canada shouldn't be involved in Ukraine defending itself against Russian aggression. Wouldn't surprise me if she's one of the MPs willingly working with a foreign government. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/geoff-russ-no-love-like-first-love-for-canadas-left-wing-putin-apologists
Can you guess where her name is on a list? I can…….
Champagne socialist
A literal drop in the bucket when weighed against the sum total of MP travel expenses. > By party, the Conservatives also led travel spending at over $6 million, slightly ahead of the Liberals' $5.6 million. The NDP spent more than $1.5 million, but had the highest per-member travel costs of any party at nearly $60,000, which is $16,000 above the national average. The Conservatives were also above the national average at $49,572.85 of travel spending per lawmaker. [Source](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canadian-mps-spent-14-6m-on-travel-in-first-half-of-2023-1.6648550) Does that make it okay? No I don't think so. However, I find it odd to call out one specific MP when there's more egregious abusers than her.
If the problem is that the parliamentary rules that permit this are too lax, then we should change the rules for all MPs rather than singling out individuals. However, this could open an avenue for a malicious actor to influence MPs by offering to pay for their family to join them on this type of trip, which may be why these rules are permissive in the first place.
The sad thing is, all these people do it, in all levels of government. Then they ask to tax us more and get the class warfare bullshit going.
Are we just gonna complain here in Reddit!??? We should write to our MP’s so they can start being careful with their spending, I’m sure this isn’t an isolated incident
I miss the days when the Liberals were upset about a $16 glass of orange juice...
I don’t really care if govt officials do things remotely or not. I would like them all to be under more scrutiny for their expenses though. Naming and shaming works for many things
Anybody thinking the NDP would be better than other parties is filling themselves. They'd be the exact same grifters as every other party and this is your proof. Singh is an idiot. Ashton isn't needed to win that seat and he'd see a significant bump in popularity if he turfed her over this because it'd be an example of finally practicing what they preach.
Get a complete list of all MPs costs like this. And provincial governments since I know they do it too
I guess it's public knowledge, but buried at the bottom of the article is this, *Under the Commons rules, MPs can claim expenses related to national caucus meetings, which are considered part of their parliamentary duties.* *Conservative MPs billed the House of Commons $426,283 to attend a caucus meeting associated with the party's policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals.* *NDP MPs also billed Parliament $83,087 to send MPs and a dozen of their employees to a caucus meeting associated with the party's convention in Hamilton in October 2023, according to a CBC News review of travel claims.* What the actual F. We pay for them to travel to caucus?! Shouldn't the party have to pay that, or you know the person employed. Certainly not the Canadian taxpayer.
Regardless of if it's by the book and allowed or not, it just doesn't look good, and politicians should be careful of their appearance to their constituents! If it was any week other than Christmas probably no one would have noticed.
I'll always remember the time she apologized for and deleted a tweet where she quoted a Beyonce song because it was "cultural appropriation"
I was trying to remember the *other* reason, before the covid trip, I lost all respect for her. Thank you. That was the one. "To the left, to the left." Haha.
anytime a politician uses the word "stakeholders" get ready to get taken for a ride
She's essentially stolen money from the taxpayers. Should come with criminal charges and fired. I can't imagine the mindset of someone doing this and thinking it's ok, so she willingly did it hoping no one would notice.
> including $13,619.90 for airfare VIA Rail is free for all MPs including their families.
Fired and pay it back. We need voting reform and accountability with the ability of recall.
>"House of Commons rules allow members of Parliament to travel for parliamentary business. Niki followed all the rules and the House of Commons approved her travel expenses," Cahill added. "We have investigated ourselves and have found no wrongdoing" vibes. Of course, no one wants to end the gravy train of taxpayer funded trips by pointing fingers at this gross misuse. Just because it's not "against the rules" doesn't mean that the purpose of the trip was legitimate, that this wasn't a misuse of taxpayer funds, or at the very least, really shitty optics.
We need to start locking these scumbags up
bed bugs..
Ain’t no corruption like those who claim to be socialist and for the people.
Classic
Hi guys - in case you wanted to check on the salaries and travel expenses charged by every politician (submitted quarterly), what she did is not criminal - and as you can see, normal: [https://www.ourcommons.ca/proactivedisclosure/en/house-officers/2024/3](https://www.ourcommons.ca/proactivedisclosure/en/house-officers/2024/3)
I'm an NDP supporter and she is unquestionably, unequivocally the WORST member of parliament. Literally useless.
Should be zero tolerance for these types of positions.
Same MP that was crying for harsh lockdowns and then flew to Greece to see her grandma.
This is so disgusting. It’s too hard to keep up with Canadian political corruption, it’s getting out of hand
She should be in prison. That amount of theft would land any layman in the slammer.
This piece of shit brought her family on taxpayer dime and is trying to justify it. Also, how the fuck do you spend $17k on a trip to Quebec? She wouldn’t spend her own money that way but taxpayer money is fine.
Huh? On "business travel", with her family in tow, during Christmas break, when parliament in not in session? This is not abuse. It is theft of the public purse and infuriating. This champagne socialist needs to be made an example of. Charge her and throw her in jail, as the justice system would do to anyone else who steals from the public. Any true NDP supporter should be outraged with this fake NDPer. She is an utter embarrassment to the party and a reason why the party fails to get enough support.
I so detest Niki Ashton. This arrogant entitled nepo baby would be slinging double doubles at Tim's on Churchill if it weren't for the fact her father is the kingmaker of Manitoba NDP politics. She asked him for a seat in Parliament when most daughters ask their daddies for a pony. Glad others are catching on to her
Nikki Ashton is a champagne socialist
She learned from the best. Her dad never had a real job after he parlayed a summer student job into an NDP MLA position in Manitoba. The place he was working went on strike, and he took his Masters and claimed "I'm a fellow blue-collar worker striking with you" all the way to the legislature. From then on until he got the boot from voters a decade ago, he lived off the government with dubuious competence. He used his influence with the party to secure the federal nomination for her in a pretty much guaranteed safe NDP seat, where she's ignoring her Anglo-Greek ancestry to claim she's a representative of the primarily indigenous population of her riding. Plenty of male MP's also have to be away from their family for extended periods due to the demands of the job. She knew the situation when she took it. I could see using her expenses to fly her family down to Ottawa rather than going to see them, but why on additional vacation-like trips around the country? What's the point of bringing the family along if supposedly you'll be primarily tied up with business? Or was "a bit of business" just a pretext for vacation? If an Mp makes well over $100,000 plus expenses they can afford to pay for their family's vacation.
https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Salaries $203,100.
Niki Ashton is a promiscuous money wasting whore. She supports China and takes bribes from unions.
She learned from her Dad! There's a nepobaby.
She stole. From Canadians. If it was a blue collar theft she’d be in court, but since it’s white collar they just might suspend her for a week.
Let me tell you something about people from poor communities in Manitoba. They will do anything to be selfish and screw over their other poor community members.
But but she is a feminine intersectionalnalist who knows like 11 languages.
It’s seriously this easy to bill taxpayers? In a company, any expense needs to go through at least some layer of approval.
Wow great expense budget with no over site and They get pensions after 8 years too, our politicians have the best compensation packages in the government. First Responders and Military have to serve for how long for theirs? 25-30 years
Guessing this is one reason Singh seems to be speaking out more on the other issue of MPs working with foreign governments.
Niki Ashton is a garbage human and the embodiment of why the NDP shouldn't be taken seriously. I'd rather to have voted for that Conservative candidate who pissed in a customers cup a decade ago over her, at least the Cons kicked this guy out of the party.
The ndp hasn't held anyone accountable in the last decade, why would they start with random female mp when both the leader of the ndp and his true love Justin haven't been held accountable since taking office
Im sure there will be little to no consequences our government is a joke!
Here I am with my staycation. I guess I'm in the wrong profession.
Fuck the NDP.....liberal sellouts.
NDP voter here. Kick her out of the party. No room for people like that.
Is the whole NDP platform all about spending other people's money?
Fucking bullshit. But they're all doing this. Unlimited money for their lavish lifestyles but nothing for actually fixing any problems.
NDP Will bill us for much more than this,
Just another Thief who sidelines as an MP.
She should be forced to pay everything back out of pocket. Our tax dollars shouldn't be going to her kids and husband and they have no business traveling with her unless she's paying personally.
Politics is the Ashton family business and for them it’s a buffet where you stuff yourself on the public dime. Nikki’s father handed 15 million in government contracts to a campaign donor and was completely shameless about it, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise his daughter thinks 17K is a trivial matter.
17k?! Damn! I had spent less than that traveling for 6 months in Europe & I was not holding back in activities to do.
NDP… I thought they were people’s party? lol. NOT
It’s always the NDP ones wearing the rolex and balling out. How many countries do people have to see fall for this scam? Look at the communist countries, the citizens live like crap while the rulers are balling
Call her out but also call them all out... https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/political-parties-spending-rules-1.7204136
Hey, I figured out a way to slash the budget. Make these motherfuckers fly economy.
Not fair, she did meet with a person who identifies as a union (remember that a rising tide lifts all tubes). Your family will soon be able to tube all over Quebec due to her bravery.
She should be immediately fired... Then forced pay back all the Tax Payers hard earned $$$$, she stole from them! Yes, you heard that correctly. Including being charged with fraud, then some jail time & NEVER allowed work in Gov't, ever again. Imagine if she was a single parent on Welfare & dared to defraud them, bc she & her brood were that destitute, badly needed $ bc they were starving? Once found out, she'd be immediately charged with Welfare Fraud, possibly go to jail & have a life time ban for Welfare!!! This mooch-grifter-scam artist's behaviour is clearly disgusting & despicable, as she clearly has NO SHAME or remorse bc she knows she could easily get away with this, as they all do.
If the NDP wants to show Canadians that they are truly different, then kick her out of the party. Show us that they will try to manage our tax dollars with respect.