“One of the best parts of my job”: Trudeau replies to questions about the cost of his flying around Canada ahead of the campaign period

While on another trip to Vancouver, Trudeau avoided answering repeated questions from reporter Bob Mackin about the cost of his travels ahead of the official campaign period.

“You’ve been flying out at great frequency, I know there’s an election approaching, but by calculations of experts its more than 10,000 litres of jet fuel to go back and forth betweem Vancouver and Ottawa, and about 20 tonnes of CO2, and you’re also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mackin.

“Why isn’t the Liberal Party of Canada paying the entire bill of the trips to British Columbia at this time?”

In response, Trudeau avoided answering the question by talking about his party’s changes to the federal electoral fundraising rules.

“First of all, we were pleased to transform our electoral fundraising system at the federal level to demonstrate a greater degree of transparency and openness than ever in the past and we’ve continued to encourage the Conservative Party and the NDP to follow the new rules put down,” said Trudeau before laying blame on Stephen Harper.

Yesterday, @JustinTrudeau skirted questions from @bobmackin about the costs of his constant flights around Canada ahead of the campaign period, said “it’s one of the best parts of my job.” pic.twitter.com/I1xDaeAJ3D— Cosmin Dzsurdzsa (@cosminDZS) July 30, 2019

At the tail end of 2018, the Liberals passed Bill C-76 in December which revamped federal campaign financing laws by putting a cap on spending limits for the three months before the election is called, among other regulations.

“Prime minister, Stephen Harper is not the prime minister right now,” said Mackin.

“Can you please say how much the cost is to taxpayers for this current trip, which includes tax, which includes a fundraiser, which also included your time off in Tofino. How much are taxpayers paying for these?”

“The prime minister has the responsibility to be prime minister for all Canadians, that is part of why I spend an awful lot of time getting out there and meeting with Canadians,” replied Trudeau.

“It is in fact one of the best parts of my job to get out and meet with Canadians right across the country.”

Trudeau was at the Kitsilano Coast Guard on Monday to announce renovations to the guard’s base.