Olympic mascots Quatchi and Miga arrive for a photo-op to promote the sale of tickets to the games in Vancouver, B.C. on Oct. 2. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

They're not just the hottesttickets in town. They rank among the hottest tickets on the planet --seats for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, especially the openingand closing ceremonies.

Fifteen hundred of these tickets areset aside for MPs, senators and anyone else the government wants togive them to. Ordinary Canadians -- except for the fortunate people whowere able to buy them in an on-line lottery -- are out of luck becausethe available tickets are now sold out.

None of this is new.Tickets for MPs are an Olympic tradition and, in the past, MPs usuallywent to the Games for free, just one of the perks that came with thejob. This time it's different, as Minister of State for Sports GarryLunn was careful to point out.

"The Prime Minister's made itclear. We've set a policy -- the government of Canada -- that thetaxpayers will not be paying for one single ticket," said Lunn.

MPswill have to pay the full fare for their tickets. In the interests ofbeing absolutely fair, Lunn said, the tickets will be distributed toeach political party on a proportional basis, and it will be up to theparty to decide who gets the tickets. He said that in his own party,there will be a draw for the most sought-after events.

So, nofreebies for MPs here. But, still, they are getting preferredtreatment. A lot of Canadians never got the same opportunity to scoretickets.

"Who gets to the front of the line?" asked CharlieAngus, the NDP heritage critic. "The members of parliament are beingtreated as a special class."

Angus said he wouldn't buy agovernment-issued ticket; he'd get his own tickets. And, since he can'tdo that because they're simply not available, he'll watch the Games onTV at his local sports bar.

Joyce Murray, the Liberal criticfor sports and the Olympics said that her party wasn't consulted at allabout the ticket windfall, and she'd need to see more details. SinceMPs have to pay, the tickets might be appropriate, but still, "1,500tickets is a lot."

In the debate about whether this is specialtreatment for a group of people who are well-paid and well-connected,it's worth pointing out that all the sponsors of the Games, includingtwo B.C. crown corporations, have been allotted blocks of tickets, andthe federal government is in fact a sponsor as well.

Still,one Liberal MP said many Canadians will never in their lives get to goto the Games, and it's not fair that some will be deprived of thechance.

The federal government spent over $500,000 for thetickets, and it intends to hand about half of them out internationaltrade representatives who want to do business in Canada. But when itcomes to MPs and senators, the government expects to get the moneyback, because, let's face it, these tickets are going to get snappedup.