For anyone still wondering who gets the goods during prestige athletic events, here's a bit more evidence that big wigs are the big winners when it comes to spending other people's money. The City of Vancouver spent more tax dollars on Olympic event tickets for politicians than than they did for former athletes.

The City's report showed spending totalling $350,715 on 1,557 Olympic tickets and $21,790 for 534 Paralympic tickets. The cost of some tickets was reimbursed, so the final cost to city taxpayers was $188,255.

The report shows taxpayers forked over $36,155 on free tickets for city councillors and park board trustees and $25,950 on a group identified in the report as “local athletes & Olympians” such as figure skaters Emanuel Sandhu and Victor Kraatz. The city also spent $4,740 on 27 tickets for city staff.

Taxpaying families, many of whom could not afford tickets, were forced to fund tickets for politicians and those deemed by politicians to be more worthy than others. This should be a warning to taxpayers - no matter how seemingly worthy these events might be, someone gets left to pay for it, and that someone is taxpayers.