Resign!
Last week, we learned that Conservative senate leader Don Plett had travelled to Mexico over the Christmas holidays, despite having earlier posted a video telling Canadians that we can’t travel and gather as we used to because of the pandemic.
Now, we have learned that Plett last year signed a directive that banned MPs and Senators from international travel as part of parliamentary delegations.
The ban – which was adopted by the Joint Interparliamentary Council – is still in effect.
A Conservative MP, Bruce Stanton, who also signed the directive, had this to say:
“We just said, ‘Look, we’ve got to shut this down.’ There’s just no way we can agree to see parliamentarians going outbound or … receiving interparliamentary delegations on Parliament Hill.”
He added that Plett agreed with the move, saying “There was no hesitation on his part at all.”
Now, the order applies to travelling for the job, not vacations.
But, if the pandemic meant MPs and Senators should be banned from international travel related to their job, then it certainly follows that travelling for a vacation is far worse.
It is rampant hypocrisy, with Plett repeatedly saying one thing, while doing another.
For that reason, that kind of arrogant elitist attitude the Conservatives regularly accuse the Liberals of, that Plett must resign.
And for Erin O’Toole, while he doesn’t have the direct power to remove Plett, he can certainly make a statement calling on Plett to resign. If that doesn’t happen, it simply tars the Conservatives with the elitist label, and makes it far tougher for them to slam the Liberals for hypocrisy going forward.
At this point, the only acceptable outcome here is for Plett to resign and leave the Senate.
The Canadian People should not have to put up with such disgraceful hypocrisy from those in power.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
