Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a family vacation in British Columbia. The trip comes as Liberal MPs have been demanding an in-person caucus meeting to discuss their party’s poor poll numbers and the loss of a key seat in a Toronto byelection last month.
Trudeau and his family left for B.C. on the weekend. The Prime Minister’s Office said the location of their holiday cannot be shared for security reasons, but flight trackers showed the government aircraft used to transport Trudeau taking off from Ottawa and landing in Tofino, a British Columbia beach destination, on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Trudeau’s office confirmed he will be reimbursing the government for the equivalent of commercial airline tickets for he and his family, as is standard procedure.
The Prime Minister’s Office also said Trudeau will be paying for the family’s accommodations while there out of pocket and has already consulted with the Ethics Commissioner’s office about the trip’s details.
Trudeau violated the conflict of interest rules in 2016 after accepting a vacation to Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.
The Conflict of Interest Act permits politicians to accept gifts and other perks from relatives or family friends exclusively. Family friends must have a well-documented, long standing relationship with the politician, which the commissioner said didn’t apply to the Aga Khan and Trudeau.
Additionally, Trudeau attracted controversy over his vacation to Jamaica last year. The ethics commissioner ultimately said the prime minister didn’t violate any rules in staying at a wealthy friend’s luxury villa.
The prime minister’s trip to Tofino, B.C. in 2021 also became a scandal when he went surfing on Canada’s first ever Truth and Reconciliation Day, a national civic holiday established by his own government as a commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
Trudeau later apologized to Tk’emlúps Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir after ditching multiple invitations to her community’s ceremony to honour the holiday, instead choosing to vacation in Tofino.
Trudeau claimed that he could not visit the community because he had a phone call with Indigenous leaders while in Tofino.
Earlier this month, Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan shot down requests from numerous Liberal MPs for a summer caucus meeting, calling such a thing “impossible” due to “scheduling logistics.”
Many Canadians have come to associate the prime minister’s vacations with scandals and news of another was met with frustration by some.
“Every time that Trudeau jets across the country to go on vacation it’s a reminder that he isn’t a climate activist, he’s a climate grifter,” posted one X user.
“Will we be on the hook for Trudeau vacation expenses? Or should he be expected to pay for his family vacation like the rest of us?” asked another.
“Housing crisis, healthcare crisis, unemployment crisis… Perfect time for a secret Trudeau vacation,” wrote another X user. “This is uncontrolled insanity!”
