Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast are rightly shining a spotlight on Senate expenses. While excuses such as confusion over one’s home—a principle children across the country master shortly after potty-training—are laughable, a basic natural phenomenon is not.
Most Canadians outside the GTA have experienced this natural phenomenon. Whether reading a newspaper, engaging in conversation, or traveling, we are aware that Toronto is the centre of the universe: news reports gravitate towards it; conversations with Torontonians confirm it; and Air Canada’s flight schedule makes clear that the gravitational pull of Toronto is an unstoppable force of nature.
So why are we so quick to critique Senator Wallin’s travel to her Saskatchewan home via Toronto?
Imagine the technological innovation required for Wallin to travel in clear defiance of gravity’s pull. Almost immediately after take-off at Ottawa’s MacDonald-Cartier International Airport, the plane would be drawn towards Pearson International Airport—valiant efforts of Air Canada’s flight crew notwithstanding.
By choosing to simply accept that fundamental forces of nature apply to Senators, Parliamentarians, and average Canadians alike, Wallin saved taxpayers millions in research & development expenses.
This isn’t to suggest that we should thank her for this—the licensing of such technology could be quite a windfall for government coffers—but criticizing her for succumbing to a generally accepted fact of nature? C’mon Canada, be reasonable.
Private sector innovation, such as Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop, may someday facilitate blitzing past the strongest areas of GTA gravitational pull. In the meantime, let’s blame gravity, not Senator Wallin.