PMO won’t shine daylight on how Trudeau got Taylor Swift tickets

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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office won’t say how he managed to secure multiple tickets to Taylor Swift’s notoriously inaccessible Eras Tour, something many of the superstar’s staunchest fans could only imagine in their wildest dreams.

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The PMO’s silence on how Trudeau acquired the prized item comes after another Liberal, Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan, attracted much bad blood last week for briefly accepting taxpayer-funded tickets to Swift’s concert in Vancouver.

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During the Sajjan controversy, National Post sent PMO numerous questions about Trudeau’s acquisition of tickets to a Nov. 22 Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. The prime minister was seen in attendance with Sophie Grégoire and their daughter.

A PMO spokesperson declined to answer nearly all questions, such as how the prime minister managed to secure multiple tickets for the event, who he bought them from and how much he paid.

“The Prime Minister personally paid for his tickets” is all PMO spokesperson Jenna Ghassabeh would say in an email to National Post.

Taylor Swift fans, or “Swifties”, know all too well how difficult it was to nab the limited number of tickets to the superstar’s six shows in Toronto and three in Vancouver.

Admission to the shows sold out within hours and tickets were being resold for sometimes upwards of $10,000, even sparking a petition for the government to investigate “outrageous resale concert ticket prices.”

For Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett, there’s a blank space in the public record where the prime minister should explain how he came about the prized tickets.

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“If Justin Trudeau has nothing to hide then he should have no problem telling Canadians how he came about the tickets and how much he paid for them. Did he pay the same price any other Canadian would need to pay for those same seats, or did he get a special discount?,” Barrett said in a statement.

Nearly one fortnight ago, Sajjan was virulently criticized after Global News revealed that the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency had accepted two taxpayer-funded Taylor Swift tickets from PavCo.

PavCo, the B.C. crown corporation that owns the venue hosting the show, has previously received federal funding. A spokesperson for the organization stated last week it had offered tickets to many elected officials, but Sajjan was the only one who took it up on the offer.

Sajjan admitted he accepted the gift despite already having purchased four show tickets for his family that he then resold.

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“We already had four tickets before, which we didn’t end up going to in Toronto, and we sold those at cost to other friends,” Sajjan told reporters last week.

In exchange for the tickets from PavCo, Sajjan said he donated $1,500 to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. His office also noted the ticket gift was green lit by the federal Ethics Commissioner because the donation was approximately the same value as the two concert tickets.

But after a week of criticism from opposition parties that he could not shake off, Sajjan announced Monday that he did not attend the concert.

“After reviewing the circumstances and reflecting on the conversations about (the) offer of tickets to the Eras Tour, Minister Sajjan declined the tickets on Friday and did not attend the show,” read a statement from Sajjan’s office to media Monday.

Conservative MP Barrett told National Post that Sajjan’s saga shows the prime minister must now shed daylight on how he obtained tickets for his family.

“We have already seen one of Trudeau’s Ministers caught using his status and connections in relation to securing tickets. Justin Trudeau should just answer clearly, but Canadians can’t trust what he says on issues big or small,” he said in a statement.

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In 2017, another personal trip by Trudeau — this time a family vacation to the Aga Khan’s island —landed the prime minister in trouble with the ethics commissioner’s office.

Though Trudeau argued that the Aga Khan was a longtime family friend so the trip was an acceptable gift, then-commissioner Mary Dawson disagreed that their relationship fit the legal definition of a friendship and concluded the prime minister had broken the law.

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