Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to return to Vancouver on a government jet for more Liberal Party events on the cusp of the 2025 election year.
The round-trip is expected to cost taxpayers around $58,000 and burn about 13,000 litres of aviation fuel.
Bob Mackin
A Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel fundraiser in Richmond on Dec. 12 is advertised with an admission of $0 to $1,000.
Trudeau is also expected to visit the Cloverdale-Langley City riding to support his Dec. 16 by-election candidate Madison Fleischer. Fleischer gained national attention when she said she would apply for Metis status after the Waceya Metis Society in Langley and White Rock doubted claims about her identity in Liberal campaign literature.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Nov. 9 at the Liberal Party’s B.C. convention in North Vancouver (X/LPC)
It is Trudeau’s second political trip to the West Coast in just over a month.
On Nov. 8, after a 22-minute housing infrastructure-themed news conference, Trudeau headlined two Liberal fundraising events in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. He appeared the next afternoon at the Liberal Party of Canada in B.C. (LPCBC) North Vancouver convention in the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier.
The official Elections Canada attendance list for the first Nov. 8 event, at 5:30 p.m., names 53 people, including:
- Vancouver city councillor/Federation of Canadian Municipalities president Rebecca Bligh;
- Vancouver city councillor/Federation of Canadian Municipalities director Lisa Dominato;
- Rennie Group founder and Musqueam Capital Corp. director Bob Rennie;
- LPCBC chair and Onni Group chief of staff Duncan Wlodarczak;
- Earnscliffe Strategies principal Bruce Young;
- Ex-Sustainable Development Technology Canada director Steve Kukucha;
- Federation of Community Social Services of B.C. director of policy Diamond Isinger;
- Nch’kay Development Corp. director and B.C. NDP campaign strategist Mike Magee;
- MP Joyce Murray’s retired office manager Catherine Evans;
- Hoggan and Associates strategic counsel Nancy McHarg;
- Strategies 360 Canada president Michael Gardiner;
- Musqueam Indian Band councillor Howard Grant;
- Musqueam Indian Band intergovernmental relations officer and Vancouver-Quadra nomination candidate Wade Grant;
- Lawyer Ravi Hira;
- UrbanLogiq CEO Mark Masongsong; and
- Coast Communications and Public Affairs vice-president and LPCBC director Tyler Pronyk.
For the 7:30 p.m. event, there were 63 attendees listed.
Four of them from one family, the Noormohameds, including Vancouver Granville MP and Parliamentary Secretary of Canadian Heritage Taleeb Noormohamed.
Five attendees from the Damji family and five more from the Lalji family, including Mansoor Lalji, whose Larco Investments owns the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and Vancouver Sheraton Airport Hotel.
Other notables: Chase Realty Corp. president Farouk Verjee and Jameson Development Corp. head Tony Pappajohn.
On the same night in the same hotel, Noormohamed hosted a 6 p.m. fundraiser for his re-election campaign, charging between $0 to $500. Transport Minister Anita Anand was a special guest. Of the 66 attendees, 36 Noormohamed supporters listed addresses outside Vancouver. Nearly all of them are also named on the regulated fundraising event report for Trudeau’s 7:30 p.m. appearance.
The Dec. 12 event in Richmond comes two days shy of the anniversary of Trudeau’s last 2023 B.C. fundraiser, when only 87 people were listed as attendees of a Westin Bayshore Hotel event for $0 to $1,700.
That was 71% fewer people than the 302 for Trudeau’s Dec. 2, 2022 Crown Palace Banquet Hall event in Surrey, where the admission ranged from $500 to $1,675.
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