York Centre Federal Liberal Association

Last Friday, in his first act since introducing his free-spending and cost-cutting budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty frittered away public funds on a taxpayer-subsidized coffee run to a London, Ontario Tim Horton’s.
 

Minister Flaherty flew a government jet to London and took a commercial flight back to Ottawa, leaving taxpayers on the hook for both his return flight and for the cost of flying an empty government jet back to Ottawa – adding a whole new meaning to the phrase “double-double” for two-timing the taxpayer.
 

While the actual costs of commandeering a Transport Canada jet are unconfirmed, one quote for a three-hour return flight on a commercial charter for the same Cessna Citation that Minister Flaherty flew pegged the cost at $4,575.  The return flight on a commercial airline from Ottawa to London would have cost approximately $400 – for a total cost of nearly $5000.
 

With $5,000, Jim Flaherty could have made the ten-minute walk from his Parliament Hill office to the closest Tim Horton’s and bought – with taxes included:
 

• 32,837 Timbits – enough for every resident of Conservative MP Ray Boughen’s hometown of Moose Jaw, Saskatchwan

• 8,181 apple fritters – enough to send every member of the Conservative cabinet home 18 dozen fritters.

• 4,079 cups of coffee – enough for two large double-doubles for every civil servant working at Finance Canada.