 |
OTTAWA — Being the prime minister has its perks.
Not only does Stephen Harper get the drafty old house on Sussex Drive and the corner office on Parliament Hill, but he also gets a pass that lets him into all events at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games for free — unless, of course, he chooses to pay anyway.
“For every Olympic event that the prime minister is going to be attending he will be paying, personally, for the highest most expensive ticket available for that event,” said Dimitri Soudas, Harper’s press secretary.
To avoid the perception that he’s taking a free ride, Harper will make a donation to the Canadian Olympic or Canadian Paralympic associations that is equal in value to the most expensive ticket for a given event.
The highest priced ticket at the games is $1,100 for the best seats at the opening ceremonies while the best seats at the gold medal hockey game cost $775.
The Prime Minister’s all-access-pass is one of five such passes explained Soudas. The other four went to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, Minister of State for Sport Gary Lunn and Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore.
Soudas said ministers Lunn and Moore will be using their passes to get into venues, but if they are going to stop long enough to watch a game they will be made to buy tickets from a batch reserved for MPs.
A spokesman for Ignatieff said the liberal leader would not be following Harper’s example because they did not want to “politicize the Olympics,” they simply wanted to make use of the pass given to them by the Prime Minister’s Office.