Manitoba senator cut Mexico vacation short after Ontario uproar

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This article was published 05/01/2021 (1732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Manitoba senator is back home and quarantining, after a short Christmas trip to Mexico.

Conservative Senate leader Don Plett landed in Mexico just one day before a national uproar over an Ontario minister’s Caribbean vacation, and he returned to Manitoba three days later.

By that point, news had emerged in multiple provinces of politicians going abroad, despite officials urging them to stay put.

“Senator Plett travelled to Mexico on Dec. 28. Upon arrival, he reflected on his decision to travel and immediately made arrangements to return home on Dec. 31,” wrote spokeswoman Karine Leroux.

In April, Plett had criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for going to a family cottage, saying he should have heeded the same advice as everyone else.

​Another Manitoba senator, Marilou McPhedran, is currently in British Columbia with family.

Meanwhile, none of Manitoba’s 14 MPs revealed any unreported international travel since its COVID-19 state of emergency started March 20. Half did not specify whether they’d gone to other provinces.

On Dec. 31, the NDP revealed MP Niki Ashton was in Greece to visit an ailing relative. Liberal Minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal visited Edmonton in August, as Ottawa’s representative for the swearing-in of Alberta’s lieutenant-governor.

Some MPs travelled to Ottawa to sit in the Commons.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Dan Mazier visited Saskatchewan over the summer, but his six fellow Tories did not say whether they’d visited other provinces.

Before her Greece trip, Ashton did not leave Manitoba, but the NDP did not specify if her two Manitoba colleagues had left the province.

Manitoba requires anyone who travelled east of Terrace Bay, Ont., to self-isolate, but the public health order specifically exempts “elected officials and their staff.”

Meanwhile, McPhedran says she travelled to a family property in B.C. and isolated before seeing her adult children for the holidays. “We also all got tested, to be sure that we were OK,” she said.

Three senators said they had not travelled anywhere beyond Manitoba and Ottawa, while the office of Sen. Mary Jane McCallum did not reply by Monday afternoon.

Last week, Ontario MPP Rod Phillips resigned from his role as that province’s finance minister, after it came to light he was vacationing in the Caribbean island of St. Barts.

Phillips had posted numerous photos and videos on social media that suggested he was still in Canada over the holidays. A handful of similar cases of provincial cabinet ministers and MLAs were since revealed.

Just before the Christmas break, Plett told the Red Chamber that due to the pandemic, he would not be seeing colleagues in Florida.

“In January, we would sometimes be seen on the golf course together in Florida. That won’t happen this year, so we’ll have to wait until next year,” he said, 11 days before arriving in Mexico.

In a Christmas video message, Plett noted families would have to celebrate apart, as “the pandemic has forced us to change some of those traditions, since we cannot travel.”

Meanwhile, in April, Plett accused Trudeau of “double standards” for visiting his cottage in Quebec during Easter, after officials had urged people in Ottawa not to cross into that province.

“While the rest of (Canadians) are asked to stay home and find different ways to spend Easter without their loved ones, we once again, are gobsmacked by the fact the PM doesn’t think the rules apply to him. So frustrating,” Plett tweeted April 13, adding “the cottage isn’t exactly essential business.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca