EXCLUSIVE: Liberals spent “liberally” to campaign in Calgary on taxpayers' dime

The Trudeau Liberals went all out in two Calgary by-elections back in March. While it didn’t raise their seat count in Parliament (an outcome many expected) it did raise questions about expenses incurred.

Trudeau came to Calgary to campaign for Liberal candidates, held a big rally and used the platform to knock the Conservatives. This meant that the trip costs should have been borne by the party rather than the taxpayer since it was partisan business, not official government business.

And I have the documents showing the Liberals spared no expense:

Watch as I share what’s in documents The Rebel received through an Access to Information and Privacy request showing that Trudeau and his entourage made no attempt to save a dime for taxpayers on this trip, even though they could have.

The Liberals racked up costs for airfare, meals, taxis and hotels on this short trip to Calgary that included a stop in Vancouver.

And while I also noticed that on two separate occasions, February 28 and March 2, private meeting spaces were set up and several detailed briefing notes on Calgary issues were prepared for the PM, he really didn’t talk about these things at the rally while he was here.

Did the PM schedule meetings with officials to talk about key issues while he was here? If he had any official business in the city that day, it means the whole tab is on the taxpayer.

I guess we’ll have to wait until June 30 of next year, the party’s deadline to submit expenses for 2017 by-elections, to find out exactly how much this seemingly partisan trip cost Canadian taxpayers.