THREAD: The @RodPhillips01 story and @fordnation’s explanation doesn’t work for a number of reasons.

First - Ministers’ schedules are coordinated to the minute, and all travel and meetings are approved and re-checked by multiple people in offices across govt.

The number of people who would have known @RodPhillips01’s whereabouts would have included at minimum: his Chief of Staff, Director of Operations, Ministry staff, Cabinet Office, the Premier’s Office, the PC Party legislative bureau, his constituency staff...

Rod isn’t just any MPP, he’s the Finance Minister, AND, he’s on several Cabinet Management Committees that the Cabinet Office would need to know the whereabouts for if he was needed to implement anything urgent - like say during a pandemic.

Ministers of the Crown also travel on diplomatic passports, if you’ve ever seen it, it’s dark red and issued by the feds to ensure the safety and diplomatic immunity of our govt while they travel out of country. A user of one of these SHOULD be informing the feds they’re using it

Haven’t even started on all the notices and advisories the provincial and federal govts have issued in the past 10 months against travel. BUT, it’s clear Rod knew this and choose to deceive as many people as he could with no intent of ever disclosing he left the country.

So, only one of two scenarios can possibly be true:

Everything Rod and Doug are saying is true, and Doug only found out a couple weeks ago and decided not to call him home. This means Rod always intended on deceiving the public as to his whereabouts, and pre-planned the ruse.

This ALSO means, Doug found out Rod LIED to him (through omission or otherwise), and is still choosing to stand behind him, instead of firing him - something he’s done to others for less egregious things, but it makes me ask WHY on earth would he be OK with that?

This makes me think that a second scenario is more likely than someone choosing to lie to his boss and coordinate a giant coverup within govt. Even though his staff was mum on his location, media was getting leaks that he wasn’t in the country, so someone was talking.

The second scenario is that Doug knew from the start, and approved the strategy of making sure no one would find out (again, anything else should result in immediate dismissal). So now, Doug’s part of the cover-up and protecting himself, and his and Rod’s decisions.

They didn’t get away with it, but the fact that they tried is VERY concerning. It’s inexcusable to orchestrate such an elaborate plan. It’s a sign of incredible privilege and a lack of awareness of how the rest of us are feeling. @RodPhillips01 should resign or be fired. #onpoli