Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has finally informed the public that it was he and wife Sophie who spent $6,000 for one night in a luxury hotel suite with butler service while attending the Queen’s funeral.
The release comes after months of inquiry from media outlets and politicians in the House of Commons, including from Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, which Trudeau steadfastly refused to answer.
The luxury suite expense was revealed back in October by Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun, but until Thursday, no one knew which politician had stayed in the room.
The PMO’s Thursday admission — or distraction — indicates that it was Trudeau himself who billed taxpayers for his $6,000 CAD stay in the The River Suite at the Corinthia Hotel.
In a statement, the PMO chalked up the expense to surging prices during the time of the Queen’s funeral given the high demand for rooms. However, as the National Post pointed out, the hotel’s current listed price for the same room Trudeau stayed in is higher now than what it was in September.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this announcement by the PMO comes less than twenty-four hours after now-former Liberal MP Han Dong resigned amid Chinese corruption allegations.
On Wednesday, Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus amid a bombshell allegation that he asked Chinese diplomats to hold off from releasing the Canadian Michaels from prison in 2021.
On Thursday in the House of Commons – where Trudeau wasn’t present — opposition MPs finally came together to vote on a public inquiry and overcame the Liberal votes 172-149. However, the motion was non-binding.
Even one Liberal Party MP, Kody Blois, voted in favour of the public inquiry.
This admission from the PMO also comes one month after the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) announced it was launching a legal challenge against the Trudeau Liberals’ refusal to reveal which politician stayed in the luxury suite hotel.
The CTF had previously filed an access-to-information request to find out who stayed in the suite on Canadian taxpayers’ backs, but the name was redacted upon receipt.
