Rideau Hall's budget -- the precise details of which are not subject to the Access to Information Act -- has nearly doubled since Madame Clarkson's term of office began. Now, as a result of her planned northern tour, the parliamentary committee that scuttled the career of former privacy commissioner George Radwanksi has decided to look into her spending habits. While the cost of the trip, to be paid by Foreign Affairs, may be small change in the context of overall federal spending, the committee is rightly signalling that even the Queen's representative should be accountable for spending public money.

Madame Clarkson still has time to alter her guest list. No doubt, her invitees are accomplished individuals, but what do, say, soprano Measha Brueggergosman or choreographer Edouard Lock know about "the challenges and realities of working in a northern environment"? If this trip was a serious affirmation of Canada's northern identity, she should invite Quebec loggers, Alberta oil drillers and Yukon gold miners -- people who know the world beyond the comfortable confines of Yorkville.