Why are we buying Harper's family passports?

A perusal of the Privy Council website comes up with this little gem. It would appear that the Canadian Taxpayer shelled out $640 for getting passports for Stephen Harper, His wife Laureen and his two kids Benjamin and Dawn. A few questions come to mind. First, why am I, as a taxpayer paying for the PM's family's passports? I can see paying for Harper's, since his official duties require him to leave the country on occasion, but his family? Second, the cost of $640 for the lot works out to $160 per person. A quick look at the Passport Office's website shows the maximum cost of a passport is $92, for an adult. Add another $20 for a photo and you have $112 per person. So not only are we paying for passports for a government member's family, we're paying more than we as people off the street would.

Now the amount is small and you may be asking why I'm even brining this up. It comes down to principle and accountability. Harper ran on a platform of accountability and not having a sense of entitlement. This shows that Harper thinks he's entitled to spend tax dollars on his family, who no doubt get to fly free with Harper as well, and despite publishing this information (something started by the previous, Liberal government) doesn't give a whit about if any of us find out. If Harper was truly principled, he'd have payed for his families passports, like the rest of us would have to.

It's also interesting that his family's passports cost the taxpayer at least $28 per person more than what the passport office charges. One has to wonder where that money ended up.