One thing among the many we have learned from the spending scandal is that the people who run the legislature are so out of touch they think it makes sense to buy luggage in Hong Kong.
When house clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz provided their defence to the allegations from Speaker Darryl Plecas, one of James’s arguments was that he picked up a $1,100 suitcase in Hong Kong because MLAs needed a pool of luggage for business trips.
Most British Columbians have never owned a $1,100 suitcase or seen the need for one, so they are understandably perplexed by this patrician response to allegations of extravagant spending on the public dime. Some very nice suitcases can be purchased much closer to home that would hold clothes and do all the other things one expects of a piece of luggage. And at much more reasonable prices.
The luggage, the $1,000 suit and the mother-of-pearl cufflinks, regardless of the tortured logic used to justify them, proclaim a careless attitude to public money. It’s irrelevant who made the purchase, who expensed it and who signed off on it.
Whichever person or party created the sense of entitlement does not matter. It is clear that those who feel entitled have to get out of their ivory tower and walk Government and Douglas streets.
They would discover places to buy luggage, cufflinks, suits and more.
