Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minister of international co-operation, Bev Oda, officially retires today. A sigh of relief! What a financial burden to the Canadian taxpayer the Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Durham has been.
Oda earned the dubious honor of poster girl for misspending by Tory ministers: $1,000 a day limo rides; $665 per night stint at London’s Savoy hotel in 2011, and $16 orange juice. And, she “claimed more than $400,000 in travel and hospitality expenses during her time as Canada’s international co-operation minister”?
These figures are the defining cornerstones of Oda’s legacy as a member of the Harper Government. The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson concludes:
Oda is leaving politics after having struck a serious blow to Stephen Harper’s credibility as a careful caretaker of public funds. The Prime Minister’s challenge now is to undo the damage, starting with a cabinet shuffle, but by no means ending there.
And yet, a financial burden, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will remain in private life. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has calculated that “Oda’s annual Parliamentary pension will instantly start at $52,183, adding up to $701,464 by the time she reaches the age of 80.” The pension should cover about 43,841 glasses of $16 orange juice.
But if you thought that Oda was contrite for her financial maleficence, or grateful for the unearned comfortable retirement package, think again. She’s actually giving us the political middle finger. Earlier today, she told the CBC Network on Evan Solomon’s Power and Politics program that she’s had no regrets about charging taxpayers $16 orange juice.
I really hope Oda doesn’t end up in the Senate like they all do.
Anyways, so long!
bev oda will probably be given a plum job....chair in the senate despite the fact harper hates the senate he is busy stocking it with his cronies and buddies....unless you are gordon campbell, then you get an all expense trip to england and a plum job. he is such an a**!
Harper "hated" the Senate before he came to power. Then he sneered at it. He called it a chamber where the Prime Minister "puts buddies, fundraisers and the like. So the Senate also is not very important in our political system." He promised to clean up Ottawa. And make the Senate more democratic and accountable. But after coming to power, Harper embraced the Senate. Since winning his majority in May 2011, he's appointed 10 senators. Three of them, Josée Verner Fabian Manning and Larry Smith, had been rejected by Canadians on the ballot. Even more interestingly, Manning and Smith had resigned from the Upper Chamber to run for a seat in the House of Commons. Under Harper, the Senate doubles as a rubber-stamper for bills the Conservative majority in the House of Commons passes with neither debate not nor oversight, and a retirement home for loyal Conservatives. A senator's base annual salary is $132,300.