OTTAWA — As federal politicians shake off their holiday cobwebs and return to the spotlight, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government can't shake off questions about his latest vacation jaunt.
Mere minutes after the new Liberal House leader was appointed Monday, Steve MacKinnon faced questions about Trudeau's family vacation to Jamaica, a trip that has raised eyebrows for its host, price and locale.Â
Ahead of the trip, the Prime Minister's Office initially told The Canadian Press that Trudeau's family would be covering the cost of the Dec. 26 to Jan 4. stay in Jamaica and, as is standard practice, reimburse the costs associated with the use of government aircraft.
A day before the trip ended, the PMO issued a clarification, saying the Trudeaus were staying "at no cost" at a location owned by family friends.
The next day, it was reported by the National Post that the Trudeaus were once again staying at the high-end Prospect Estate resort, where they were given free use of a villa by longtime family friend Peter Green.
Stays at the villa, described on Prospect Estate's website as "a fortified residence dating back to the 17th century," and "perhaps the most desirable north coast villa in Jamaica,"Â currently cost about USD$6,900 per night. The Post reported that during the Christmas high season, the villa would have cost about $84,000 Canadian for the nine nights the family was there.Â
Both the high cost of the accommodations -- at a time when Canadians are buckling under cost-of-living pressures -- and the fact the Trudeaus stayed there for free have raised questions about the propriety of them taking the trip.
MacKinnon defended the vacation, noting as Trudeau's office previously had that it was cleared in advance with the ethics commissioner.
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"I think Canadians don't want to deny the prime minister the ability to take a Christmas vacation with his family, and that's what he did," MacKinnon told reporters following his swearing-in at Rideau Hall to replace Karina Gould, who is now on parental leave.Â
"All of the rules have been followed and the law has, as one of its fundamental pillars, transparency, which is of course the reason why we're discussing this today. The prime minister has acted transparently."
Trudeau's father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, stayed at Prospect Estates when he was prime minister during an official visit to Jamaica in the 1970s, kick-starting a friendship between his family and the owners of the luxury enclave that has endured since.
Among other things, one of Green's sons delivered remarks at the elder Trudeau's funeral. In 2021, the family donated a scholarship to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in memory of Green's wife, Mary-Jean Mitchell Green.
Some of those facts resurfaced last year after the Trudeaus spent their Christmas vacation at the same resort, again not disclosing the details until they were reported by the media and opposition MPs.
That trip cost taxpayers at least $160,000, according to documents later tabled in the House of Commons, factoring in the obligatory costs for Trudeau's security detail and the need to have staff accompany him to handle government business.Â
As reporting on the trip bore out the scope of the costs and the family connections, it became immediate fodder for question period and allegations that the free trip meant Trudeau now owed his friend a favour.Â
"My friends might buy me a cup of coffee or a beer, but not an $80,000 gifted vacation that obviously comes with an IOU," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last spring.Â
As recently as September, the Conservatives were still asking questions about the trip, appealing to interim conflict of interest and ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein to figure out who signed off on it, why, and whether the existing law and code governing conflicts of interest need to be changed.
Von Finckenstein told MPs his job is to focus on the application of the current law.Â
"People come to me and I tell them whether they comply with the existing law or not. That's my function," he said.
"My function is not to give opinions or to talk about how things look, but whether people have complied with the rules or not."
Trudeaus' vacations have been in the spotlight ever since his 2016 trip to the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas, a stay which ultimately saw the ethics commissioner conclude Trudeau broke the law by accepting the stay, despite Trudeau's claim that he was friends with the philanthropist and spiritual leader.
The commissioner at the time, Mary Dawson, concluded they were not actually friends.
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