Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
CTV, Sept. 18, 2013;
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has made another high-profile addition to his team, announcing Wednesday that retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie will be co-chair of his newly established International Affairs Council of Advisors.
One of Canada’s most high-profile military leaders claimed more than $72,000 in expenses, including real estate fees, for a move from his Ottawa home to another residence in the city after he retired, CTV News has learned.
Documents obtained by CTV News show retired general Andrew Leslie, who once led Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, claimed the expenses for a move in 2012.
Trudeau’s name does not appear in the second item. Oddly enough! (h/t Manny)
I’m sure it is just an oversight.
That fact probably hasn’t been peer reviewed to verify the link.
Never new the man myself, but I understand that Gen Leslie was not that popular. It is interesting to note that he is the grandson of General Mcnaughton (Chief of general staff during WW11 and minister of national defence in 1945), and Brooke Claxton who was a Liberal minister of National defence in the late 40’s,early 50’s)
I bet he is angling for the job of minister of defence as well.
The best comment in the CTV link was provided by “WillM” who noted most of the $72,000 was probably real estate and legal fees.
This retirement benefit was designed to give service personnel the option to end up in their preferred final location after a long career of being moved from pillar to post at the behest of the Crown i.e., you want to retire back to BC but your last posting is Halifax.
LGen Leslie may have done “nothing wrong” here, but he has certainly abused the spirit of the benefit by moving a short distance from one upscale residence to another within the same city.
That should be a harbinger of the kind of personal probity we might expect from him as a potential future politician.
I’m no fan of Mr Trudeau and his liberals. I believe he should be taken to task every time it is warranted. In this case I’d urge caution. Every military member, regardless of rank, who completes the requirements of their enrollment and meets the prerequisites, is entitled to claim moving and real estate expenses for a move to a new residence if completed within two years of the date that the CF member retired. At least these were the conditions in place when I retired with 35 years of service in 2012. I chose to remain where I am so I did not go through the process to claim these expenses.
The regulations used to stipulate that the member had to move a certain distance, 40 km comes to mind, from the previous residence in order to qualify for the benefits. This requirement was removed some years ago.
I would hope that military regulations are being applied evenly throughout the CF. So if we’re going to be outraged and press for the removal of these benefits from Generals, they must also be removed from Corporals. I’m sure Mr Trudeau can provide us better fodder for mockery and derision than this.
“Never new the man myself, but I understand that Gen Leslie was not that popular. It is interesting to note that he is the grandson of General Mcnaughton (Chief of general staff during WW11 and minister of national defence in 1945), and Brooke Claxton who was a Liberal minister of National defence in the late 40’s,early 50’s)
I bet he is angling for the job of minister of defence as well”
You are absolutely spot on.
Never but never appoint a former general Minister of Defence. The military needs someone to take out the trash, not build the bureaucracy. It’s all chiefs and no Indians.
$72,000 in expenses?
Two months after basic training 3 of us were assigned to move a one star general.
He always talked about how everything should be ‘pin pointed’ perfect,
?whatever the crap that means.
We moved and removed almost every piece of furniture,
after two days we were tired of saying ‘yes sir, no sir,’ ‘we will do our best.’
Then he wanted us to ‘pin point’ detail his front yard,
strip soil, potting soil, reseed, dig, plant flowers, move bushes, and trim trees.
We probably earned 20 dollars for the week and half we spent there.
That next spring, I hope he enjoyed all the watermelons, tomatoes, beans, corn, and cucumbers,
we planted in his front yard…
I wonder when the media will start adding a disclaimer at the end of their stories. Something along the lines of ” no Liberals were harmed in the production of this article”.
Or would that be redundant?
The juxtaposition is the coverage. Whether the expenses are warranted doesn’t matter: he was first and foremost a Liberal in the first story, hand picked by JT. JT was the top of the headline. When there’s something that might not look good, what party does Leslie belong to? How did he get to his current position? He’s just a senior military leader who retired (and it’s unspoken but implicit that he’s probably one of those right-wingers because we all know how they like to shoot things, and that’s how we see the military when they’re not distributing foreign aid).
eb. When I exercised my option in 1997 for a move within the same city it was treated as a local move, out of old place and into new one in the same day. Given I did not have 28 yrs service and retired as an officer, there was no real estate and legal fees claim available.
Leslie clearly would have qualified for real estate and legal fees, and lets say he sold a $1million house, then these costs wouldn’t be out of line. I’m not sure what the policy is now and if there are limits on claimable amounts. If the rules are roughly the same then his costs might be reasonable and the Torstar needs to do better research.
We can complain about this excess and entitlement to entitlements, but it’s part of the “contract” which btw also doesn’t pay overtime, though overall it’s generous compensation IMHO. Would any of us deny ourselves such an legal entitlement?
He’s come out as a Liberal, he’s entitled to his entitlements, what else matters?
We all recall he wasn’t pleased with his position as Military Ombudsman not being renewed by the Harper government so perhaps that’s the riving force for his entry into politics.
Not that I’m a lieberal lover or anything but I can actually see that the General may have had a legit claim. I too retired and was given the “last” move option. There is a big difference from moving to a posting and your “last” move. Lots of folks move their families to a new base and either rent on the economy or rent base accommodations, neither of which you would intend to retire to. In a crazy real estate market like Ottawa, it would be very easy to rack up legal and real estate fees to that amount.
That being said, the optics of this are bad no matter how you dress it up.
Someone is channelling his inner Senator.
fail to see a problem here except that some one did not do proper research for this article. All considered 72K is not out of line, as 5% on 1 mil is 50 K, legal fees up and down, and a possible capital loss.
I think the issue is that the “move” was about a long stone’s throw from his previous digs. What was wrong about the previous digs and why should I as a taxpayer reimburse him for a local “move” like that? Might just as well as charge me for renos in his old digs, if he didn’t like the carpets. Then by claiming the costs, he enacted the “Layton Defense” ….”it’s legal”. The rest of us plebes can only claim moving costs, if the move exceeds 40 km, not 4 blocks.
I don’t begrudge service personnel taking their last post “home”on retirement. I get the impression in this case that, like MOTUS, his country owed him something for his “service” that was remiss.
“The F-35, a testament to military procurement: overbudget, behind schedule, unable to fly full throttle, within 25 miles of lightning, or with weapons. Now with sensor helmet allowing pilot to look between his legs and see the ass he can kiss goodbye”
http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20140208fighter-plane-behind-schedule-over-budget.html
I retired after 22 years. Local move. Claimed 3k. This may be legal and an entitlement but is shameful. Not of him so much as the system. It is broken. That someone can ‘claim’ more on a final move after an approximate 20 years on the job, in the same geographical location and result in a payout of almost twice what the average taxpayer (his bosses) make per year. js
Not an oversight, unnecessary.
It goes without saying, if he is sticking the taxpayer for extra entitlements, it is assumed he is an active Liberal.
Now if he had been even remotely related to an active conservative, thats news by CBC standards, they would have had to mention the party affiliation every 5th line.
Not to mention they show him with mr McKay lol. ! so pathetic!
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Bad judgement, tin ear, whatever, the guys has lived on the taxpayer’s teat his entire life and he wants to be a politician with 2 government pensions, his lips firmly glued to the tax-funded teat until the end.
I would vote no.
The kicker here, is that LGen Andrew Leslie (ret’d) comes from big money. In 1996/97 I happened to see a fax sent from Land Force Western Area HQ in Edmonton, where then-Col Leslie was just appointed Chief of Staff, to a New York investment firm which put Andrew Leslie’s US$90+ Million under their management. Andrew Leslie’s father (formerly a McNaughton) took his wife’s last name in order to receive the fortune his wife’s father offered in exchange.
From the Nat Post: “…..Leslie said that after retiring, he joined the federal Liberal Party because he felt “it was time for a change in how politics is conducted” in Canada.
“I saw how the Conservative Party often attacks those people that might dare to disagree with them,” adding all too often the tactic is to make the issue personal, not about differences in policy or vision.”
Hmmm. Strange he would feel that way and join a political Party that came right out and called him and his personnel war criminals, while they were in A’stan.
I guess it wasn’t personal enough.
Will be amusing when Nicholson has to grovel and apologize to the general for his uninformed comments.
I bet the shortpants brigade in the PMO had a real hard-on over this story.
“From the Nat Post: ‘…..Leslie said that after retiring, he joined the federal Liberal Party because he felt “it was time for a change in how politics is conducted’ in Canada.
‘I saw how the Conservative Party often attacks those people that might dare to disagree with them,’ adding all too often the tactic is to make the issue personal, not about differences in policy or vision.”
I read that too and I felt Leslie made a tactical error in that letter. He should have never mentioned anything about Conservatives, Liberals or Justin Trudeau at all and should have simply defended himself in terms of the entitlements and the regulations pertaining to them.
By immediately responding in the most partisan manner possible, he completely politicized the argument and shot himself in the foot.
And I’m not taking sides here; I suspect MND Nicholson might well have shot himself in the foot too by responding too quickly before considering the matter more thoughtfully (does the man have no grown-up advisors at all in 101 Colonel By?).
(Ultimately, the only person who is really going to suffer from all this is likely to be poor old MCpl Shnooks who will find that he is no longer entitled to claim that couple of thousand dollars on his final move back to his hometown in Saskatchewan from CFB Gagetown.)
Served in the same Regiment, not a fan of Lord Andrew of Leslie. However please keep in mind the following: (1) as a basis for comparison, none of the media reports indicate what an average move costs the government, where such move might be a typical posting or for the sticklers, a retirement posting; (2) As equal to Civil Service executives, GOFOs negotiate a separate salary and benefits package then that available to serving members up to LCol, so who knows what was in his contract, (3) as has been mentioned, a significant chunk of the claimed expenses could be realtor fees on a sale of $1M (+ – ), (4) the man is a prat, but I don’t think there is much of a story here. Every department which funds cost moves (relocation) executes a set of policies issued under Treasury Board guidelines – in the case of a retirement move these have been around since before my old man retired (and took advantage of a move from ON to BC where he enrolled).
cheers,