I have a feeling that you would be surprised if you knew how much it costs the average Canadian citizen to fly, protect and otherwise spoil the families of the Prime Minister, the Governor General and the Oueen Mother when the are roaming the world on "vacations". I won't for a second believe that they pay all expenses out of their own pockets. I hope they don't travel with over a 100 personal attendants like I read Mrs O does.
Royal Familie, thats a different issue. We pay for them all to visit Canada.
Governor General is the Queen's representative.
But, normally any family taken on trips, has to be paid out of pocket here.
We had a scandal a few years back, where the politicians took thier wives on trips under government expenditures.
They paid it all back.
We have an audited general that looks at all travel expenses here, among all other expenses politicans have here.
It's all public information as well, as is easy internet accesible to find out where your elected politican is spending money on his/her expensure account.
No doubt , a lot goes to waste, like dining meetings, wine and dine for a few hours and have thousands of dollars on the tab.
Goes on everywhere, and it sucks !
But, as we speak, they are all getting the big audit !