Tories' condo 'scandal' crusade goes poof

Mindful of our appetite for real estate porn, Conservative politicians have lost their minds over the $9million luxury residence purchased for Canada’s consul-general in New York.

- MARTIN REGG COHN

The Steinway Tower, where Canada's consul general in New York will be relocating, is seen while under renovation in the distance from the Central Park Tower in this 2019 photo.

It has all the ingredients of a juicy summer scandal: sticker shock, private pampering and public malfeasance.

Too bad it’s fake porn, unfit even for consenting adults.

That hasn’t stopped Conservative MPs on a parliamentary committee from stoking their unadulterated onanism. Unable to restrain themselves, they are whipping up passions over a real estate play that is all fun and games.

Their crusade was inspired by an article in the New York Post, a sometime scandal sheet that flagged the pricey Manhattan property on a slow summer news day. But the gossip columnists wrongly assumed it was a king’s ransom for King Charles, because the deed described the buyer as “His Majesty the King in right of Canada.”

Once Ottawa clarified the official legalese — Canada was, of course, the purchaser — Conservative MPs imagined they’d found the king of all boondoggles with which to berate the Liberal government.

Now, after days of hearings, it turns out the Tories got a lot more wrong. In fact, taxpayers will come out nearly $7 million ahead — not behind — when all is said and done and sold.