Over the years, I've noticed that Canadian journalists love to chronicle anything that hints at excessive spending by politicians.

It's a reflection of the libertarian mindset that permeates the media in this country, particularly among male reporters.

Whether it's a $16 glass of orange juice or an expensive hotel room in one of the world's great cities or a governor general trying to spread Canadian culture, it invariably gets big play in newspapers across the country.

Organizations that hide their own funding sources, like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, fan the flames of these controversies.

So we shouldn't be surprised that the Vancouver Sun has made a big deal out of reporter Jeff Lee's article on Mayor Gregor Robertson's discretionary fund. Lee reported that the mayor spent $264,000 in 2015, which is a sharp increase over previous years. It came after diligent research by freelancer Bob Mackin.

It sounds like a lot of money until you realize it's an infinitesimal percentage of the City of Vancouver's $1.26-billion operating budget.

Lee pointed out that small contracts were awarded to Vision Vancouver's friends, like Naveen Girn, Rita Ko, and Lara Honrado. This will have the mayor's opponents screaming like opposition politicians are prone to do.

But let's get real: where did much of the money go? A fair chunk of it went to Robertson's travels to mobilize global support for taking action to save the planet. And judging by how the world responded to municipal leaders at the UN climate summit in Paris, he was largely successful.

Prior to the COP 21 summit, Robertson was invited to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, whose influential Papal Encyclical helped transform global discussions about climate change. It sent a message to the world that this media-savvy pontiff wasn't going to sit idly by in the lead-up to the Paris meetings.

Robertson also visited Secretary of State John Kerry as the Obama administration was trying to whip up support for stronger action on climate change at the Paris summit. Kerry wanted to cite the success of municipal governments to make the case that stronger action was needed.

In both instances, Robertson was the only Canadian mayor invited.

Kerry and Obama face some formidable opponents, such as the Koch brothers, who are willing to spend untold sums of money to maintain the status quo. The mayors are a counterweight to their clout.

In addition, Robertson launched the Vancouver Climate Pledge while in New York City for Climate Week NYC.

At the UN climate summit, the world learned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about how Canadian cities have been at the forefront of addressing climate change.

None has been as clear-eyed about the threat as Vancouver, which has adopted a climate-adaptation plan, embraced a green-building strategy, and brought forth an audacious goal of becoming 100 percent reliant on renewable energy. This latter objective is not as difficult as one might expect, particularly if senior governments focus far more attention on integrating electricity grids across North America.

In Paris, countries around the world agreed that they should collectively strive to limit temperature increases to 1.5° C above the preindustrial average.

"The global community has taken a big step to get human civilization back on track," David Suzuki wrote in the aftermath of the summit. "It’s up to us to ensure that the planet we want—with clean air, safe water, fertile soil, and a stable climate—stays within reach, for our sake and the sake of our descendants."

Robertson can take pride in the role he played over the past year in helping bring this about. And if it cost Vancouver taxpayers an extra 100 grand in this exceptionally important year for climate negotiations, I say that's a pretty good deal, considering the stakes for humanity.