PMO spends $2.4 million yearly to keep MPs toeing party line.
by Samantha Bayard
OTTAWA, May 9, 2013 (Straight Goods News) – The opposition grilled the
government today over news the Conservative government is spending $2.4 million
annually to monitor its own backbench MPs and what they are saying in the media.
Liberal Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra) computes the cost as $3,300 daily. "Each
single day of monitoring would fund a student job for the entire summer," she said in the House.
Liberal MP Dominic Leblanc (Beausejour) sees it as a waste of taxpayer’s money. "That’s a pretty serious abuse of taxpayers’ money. They’re only interested in monitoring certain MPs that perhaps might be more independent-minded.
"They’ve always been obsessive about controlling message, about cutting off information, about intimidating their backbench. What’s interesting for us is they’ve now decided to sort of turn it up by wasting over $2 million a year, $3,000 a day, having somebody follow certain Conservative MPs."
The NDP's Charlie Angus says Harper is trying to keep his MPs on message and under his thumb in the wake of the recent Speaker's ruling enabling backbenchers to speak up more often in the House.
"It’s the Conservative backbench which is causing the Prime Minister a great deal of
trouble. They’re certainly not following the party line. They’re running off on tangents all
the time. So obviously the Prime Minister’s Office is trying to keep tabs on their
behaviour," said Angus. "You could see in the House today the backbench MPs were
certainly not smiling at this news. It shows a Prime Minister who’s very distrustful, who
misuses taxpayers’ dollars for his own benefit and doesn’t seem to even trust his own
backbenchers."
Harper doesn't seem to trust his own backbenchers — Charlie Angus.
About Samantha Bayard
Samantha Bayard is a young journalist living and working out of Ottawa. She has been a contributor to the Straight Goods News family of websites since 2009. She is an avid cyclist and lover of animals.
One Response to “Conservatives monitor own backbench”
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Need more: how are they doing this and where does the money go?