Messages already forgotten

Sometimes it takes a while to make politicians understand we guess.

Despite the message sent at the time of the last election, that the cavalier way our elected officials treated the public treasury needed to change, our elected officials (well unelected ones this time) are right back at the trough.

A recent Senate fact finding trip to the Middle East and environs east of that, had to hole up in Dubai for a week, while they waited to see if it was safe to travel to Afghanistan (hmm, we wonder if there is a news paper delivery problem in Ottawa these days?).

They left on their important business, despite warnings prior to their departure that the current situation in Afghanistan wasn't particularly conducive for a look see and that the military officials on the scene were a tad too busy to drop everything and fly to Dubai for a briefing.

Net result of their international wanderings, a junket that cost 100,000 dollars including one week in Dubai spent by the Senators , which cost $30,000 on accommodations. In that one week of living close but not too close to the front lines, they had but one meeting, presumably with themselves or maybe it was with the housekeeping staff at the hotel.

What's galling about the trip that didn't rally need to be, is the attitude of the Senate Chair Colin Kenny, who seemed to insist that the Military take the time to give them the 4-1 -1 on the Afghan operation. They were rebuffed once, a week before they left by Military officials who laid it out pretty clear: "During the meeting Canadian Forces officials provided an operational update explaining that for reasons of personal safety, the committee would no longer be able to travel to Kandahar."

Despite that, the trip went ahead and the chair tried to have the Military send officials to meet with them in Dubai, all while the Canadian Army was involved in the most violent and bloody of battles since the Afghanistan campaign got under way. The Senators went higher up the military structure and we're rebuffed by none other than the Chief of Defence Staff himself who said: "military representatives would not be able to fly to Dubai for such briefings."

The idea that the army's officers should be expected to drop everything and pop by for a Senatorial dog and pony show, all while Canadian troops were in harms way just boggles the mind!

All in all, it seems like a colossal waste of money and definite lack of common sense from the Upper Chambers travelling road show. The blow back on their trip has actually managed to get the Senators backs up a bit, as they claims the negative reports are nothing but a crock.

And as only politicians can, they even suggested that they had saved the nation money, by spending only 150,000 of the 250,000 dollars budgeted.

Now if they really wanted to impress us they would have saved that other 150,000 dollars and turned the entire amount over to the Defence Department, who we're quite sure could have found a better use for it.