Reality Check: Senator Brazeau: Keeping it classy for only $292,920 of taxpayers’ money last year. And only 13,652 more days until his retirement.

The unelected and unaccountable Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau is a little mad that Senate records show he has the worst attendance record of the Upper Chamber last year.

So what did he do? He followed the Conservative blame-the-messenger playbook –even adding some offensive and sexist remarks about the reporter who wrote the story.

What does it cost taxpayers to keep Senator Brazeau going?

Salary: $132,300
Staff: $135,810
Travel: $24,810
Total: $292,920 (Source: Public Accounts of Canada, 2010-2011)

That’s $5,400 a day for the 54 days he attended.

And let’s not forget that Senator Brazeau doesn’t retire from the upper chamber until November 11th, 2049. That’s 13,652 days of unelected, unaccountable and baffling behaviour to go–all thanks to Stephen Harper!

Fortunately, New Democrats have a tried, tested and true solution to this problem: abolish the Senate.