Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Mumbai this evening for a three-day visit to the country. There are more than 1 million Canadians who have their origins in India including several in the House of Commons. For his visit to India, some MPs, all Conservatives, have joined the the Prime MInister's tour. Though the PMO occasionally invites opposition MPs to travel to foreign countries – Liberal MP Maurizio Bevilacqua, for example, was on the PM's recent trip to Rome — none were invited for this trip.
The MPs meeting up with the PM include;
Patrick Brown, Barrie
Tim Uppal, Edmonton-Sherwood Park
Devinder Shory, Calgary Northeast
Nina Grewal, Fleetwood-Port Kells
Gurmant Grewal, a former MP and Nina Grewal's husband, will also join the tour.
In addition to the MPs, there is a contingent of Indo-Canadian business leaders, including:
Bob Dhillon, CEO, Mainstreet Equity Corp. from Calgary
Hari Varshney, CEO, Varshney Capital Corp., from Vancouver
Lucky Janda, President, TCM Realty Corp., Vancouver
Aditya Jha, National Convenor, Canada-India Foundation, and CEO Karma Candy
Deepak Ruparell, Board member, Canada-India Foundation and BAPS Canada, and CEO, Silver Hotels.
Vikram Khurama, founder and CEO, Prudential Consultin and board member of the Asia-Pacific Foundation
B.S. Ahluwalia, director of imaging and president of BSA Diagnostics
UPDATE: Non-parliamentarians, including Gurmant Grewal, are paying their own way here, says PMO aides.
Gurmont Grewal? Are taxpayers paying for his trip? Are taxpayers paying for the trip of the other business folks?
What a sleazy vote buying journey.
From the collectionscanada.gc.ca website:
“There have been seven Team Canada Missions since 1994: Russia and Germany in 2002; Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2001; Japan in 1999; Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile in 1998; South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand in 1997; India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia in 1996; and China in 1994.”
I trust you asked the same questions regarding who paid for the participants on those Team Canada Missions.
Boy, you Conservative supporters sure like to pull out “the Liberals did it too!” excuse to defend your government.
Not exactly a very good reason for a party that claimed they were going to change the way things were done in Ottawa vis-a-vis accountability and transparency and so forth. Well.. they've changed things alright.. but for the worse.
Mr. Tribe, I didn't think I had to spell out the point I suggested with my comment, but I was obviously mistaken, since you indeed missed the point entirely.
“I trust you asked the same questions regarding who paid for the participants on those Team Canada Missions.”
What was the intent of my comment? In an indirect way, since I don't usually resort to sledgehammer tactics, I wondered whether the commenter objected to the government picking up the tab for the participants merely because it was organized under the Conservatives, or did he raise the same objections when the Liberals were in power.
The commenter raised the question here, which suggests he is against the possibility the Conservative government MAY have paid (neither he nor I knows for a fact who actually paid for the business people).
If he raised the same objections when the Liberals were in power, that would signal the commenter is against any government of any stripe promoting foreign trade and foreign investment opportunities, which is of course his prerogative.
Since I have no way of knowing whether the commenter similarly objected to the trade missions taking place under the Liberals, I assume he objects because the Conservatives are in power. Did he raise the same question when the Liberals were in power? I don't know. Would he now raise the same question if the Liberals were in power? Would he accuse the Liberals of engaging in “a sleazy vote buying journey”? I somehow doubt it.
So you see, Mr. Tribe, not only did you completely miss the point of my comment – subtlety is definitely lost on you – but in the process you indirectly have confirmed that what the Liberals did when in power needed to change: “change the way things were done in Ottawa vis-a-vis accountability and transparency …”
With YOUR value judgment, stating the Conservatives are behaving like the Liberals used to, YOU are the one saying the Liberals were indeed remiss in “accountability and transparency.” Thank you for admitting it here.
Gabby – when you have to work this hard to defend your guy – something is wrong.
Think about it – Gurmont Grewal? What an insult
” … when you have to work this hard …”
You think my reply, albeit lengthy, is “hard work”?
I'll have to add that to the notions you and Mr. Tribe are unfamiliar with.
Umm, I'd better spell it out … it's the “hard work” part you appear to be unfamiliar with.
BTW, Mr. Grewal is not the issue, IMO. You chose to single him out, but your main objection is to the entire trip, which you term “a sleazy vote buying journey.”
Did you think the Liberals' trips were “a sleazy vote buying journey” too?
Is it just me, or does Patrick Brown's name look out of place in that list? I guess it doesn't look any more out of place than the names of nuclear executives and people connected with the Canada India Foundation amongst 2008 donors to the Barrie MP's riding association.