Manitoba MLA vacationed in the west as his own government discouraged travel

His office said he was on a family vacation with members of his household, and they stayed in rental accommodations and did not gather or socialize with anyone outside their immediate household. 

Manitobans are legally allowed to travel outside the province, but the government has strongly advised against it. 

The government said last week that no cabinet ministers travelled outside the province while Manitoba has been under red restrictions on the province’s pandemic response system.

Some politicians have faced consequences for deciding to travel while citizens are being encouraged to stay home — and the fallout let to resignations of cabinet ministers in Alberta and Ontario. Manitoba MP Niki Ashton was stripped of her NDP critic role after travelling to Greece to see a sick relative.

The governing Progressive Conservatives say Teitsma was their only MLA to leave the province during the present partial lockdown.

The provincial NDP and Liberals say none of their MLAs travelled outside the province during this time.

Meanwhile, the government also confirmed that its top civil servant, David McLaughlin, travelled to Ottawa over the holidays to spend time with his family.

“The assertion that the clerk of executive council was on vacation is false and it would be grossly inaccurate for such a narrative to be propagated,” said Blake Robert, director of media relations and issues management for the government.

“The clerk returned to his immediate family’s home in Ontario and, for the last two weeks of December, was working remotely — just as thousands of Manitobans have been for months. The work of government does not stop over the holidays.”