This is the kind of stuff that I can stand.
It is one thing if they are spending their own money but wehn they are spending our money this type of spending is disgusting.
It is not like they were entertaining a head of state or similar. Why couldn't they just have franks and beans?

And dammit... why does our head of state even have a house given to him? We should sell of 24 Sussex and the PM should just rent or buy like the rest of us!!!

There are some really cheap and affordable houses on Booth Street in downtown Ottawa... The PM could cycle to work!

We can give the PM a house for a few reasons
- The house is paid for
- What if the PM is from out of town
- so that a knife weilding maniac can know where to find the PM...I mean so the PM is easier to protect

We can pay for his food as well, but if he eats like this every night, then I think that it adds up to a lot of money that is being spent in the wrong place.

The way to a politicians heart is through their stomach... I mean ambitions.

This was very frustrating to read. I don't mind some of the perks that are given, but I thought that expenses like this were reserved for visiting heads of state.

Come to think of it, would a PC MP who wanted to defect during a minority government be considered a "Visiting Head of State"?

I know what I want for my last meal. Venison medallions in a nice compote. Some terrine, and a tiede salad.

What the Fuck?!!? I have no idea what that shit looks like, let alone tastes like. Fucking uppity snobs.

I would have laughed if it was written "Then they had some beer and hot wings. The PM got pretty bombed, but it was that Quebecois beer. His last words before he hit the floor was "MAUDITE, YOU SEPERATIST FUCKHOLES!"

The only thing I find odd about this is the fact that it was reported at all... it really has no bearing on the story that was being told...

Man, I wish Manning would come back.

Now that's a man that would make a fine PM.

Rrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeffffffffffffffooooooooorrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmm!!!!

Canadians aren't ready for a Prime Minister who actually has a brain and a vision. Might have something to do with our Canadian inbred inferiority complex or something. We'd rather get ass raped and criticise how it felt rather than blocking out the notion altogether.

Come on... yes he has a brain and a vision. I think he was a better leader later in his career. It wasn't always about him though. It was about the types that flocked to the Reform party in his day. He just got painted with the same brush.

I don't know that I would vote for him but if we were a Republic he would make an interesting President of Canada.

Good for her. It WORKED! The speaker had to break the tie and that wouldn't have happened if she didn't defect.

She could do better than Peter McKay anyway. If the guy had any balls, he'd be the Conservative leader rather than everyones wipping boy.

Eeeks! The Reform... I mean Alliance... ah, Conservatives will never win with any former Reformer as leader.

Any former reformer leader? There was only Manning...

The other guys doesn't count b/c they were all idiots to let the reform merge with the conservatives

Stockwell Day
Stephen Harper

Yeah, both of them wouldn't win but Preston...yeah he could've if he stayed in politices

double post. deleted.

They wouldn't have had to resort to attempting to unite the right of centre vote at all if it wasn't for the reaction against the PC rule of Mulroney. I hindsight, the anxiety induced by the PCs of the '80s may have caused Canadians to send a very strong message that American styled ideals will not fly here without a bit of tempering and translation (ex-reformers take strong note: it was not just an Ontario thing) but some of the most distasteful or controversial actions passed by them have been successfull in the long run for our overall economy.

I'm referring to the GST (uggh) and NAFTA. I particularly despise the LIberals for reneging on the removal of the GST, although I don't know if that would have meant replacing the hidden (what 13%?) manufacturers sales tax on items. Yet I do not know of any gov't that has actually reversed taxes with the exception of Ontario income tax which has declined steadily thanks to Mike Harris, and Ive heard that the Ontario PST actually was reduced to 4% at one point in the '70's (so i've been told).

At any rate, the point of my ramble is that I get a lot of grief from former neighbours in Vancouver about the control that Ontario has on election outcomes. I always state that the sentiments are overwhelmingly national, and that while the PCs/Refromsers/Conservatives remain parochial, they will always have problems obtaining majority due to the experience of the 1980's.

/ready to be slammed.

Disagree - Ontario elected Harris to two terms, and he was a strong fiscal conservative.

Ontario will elect fiscal conservatives - they will not elect the baggage that comes along with the Alliance/Reform/Conservative group - guns, abortions, religion, and a reputation for intolerance, both linguistic and ethnic.

Put McKay in as leader, be strong fiscal conservatives and moderate social liberals and they will win the next election.

I agree with this... the problem is that the Reform still has a strangle hold on power in the party. Harper has to get his butt kick in at least one or two more elections before he is shuffled out... THEN there has to be huge increase in progressive minded delegates... THEN they have to elect someone like McKay... This is years off...

I don't know if anyone else heard it but the chef at 24 Sussex was on the CBC the other day... I can't remember why he was on but at one point he was asked about this very meal...

He said, that he got the call at 7:30 pm for a dinner at 8:30... He said he, more or less threw the dinner together with what they had in the freezer along with some greens he picked up on the way into work. Now that I look at the list more closely, it is fancy but not all THAT fancy. I could whip this up in my own kitchen for very little money (the only part that would be difficult would be the "chocolate semi-freddo" as I don't know what semi-freddo is...).

Whatever you need to do to justify it in your eyes. ;)

What I still find odd about all of this is that it is getting discussed at all... Who care, really, what they ate?

Oh, nobody important, really, just the poor fucking working class Schmo who has never had the money to afford a dinner like this. If they were given the money as a gift by a politician, they would invest it in their retirement instead of eat it.

Sometimes we lose track of our place in society. There are people here in Canada that could take the "Very Little Money" that this meal cost and feed their family for several DAYS. I don't have a problem with money, fortune and the present class system (I know my place and am glad I'm not a couple of rungs down on the ol' ladder) but there are people who DO have a problem with it.

Like the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", we revel in vicariously living through others.

I live a block or two away from Booth.... You should ask the crackheads who squat in the house three doors away from me why property is so cheap here....


And Chocolate semifreddo is something along the lines of half-melty chocolate ice cream.