Posted on 06/08/2013 9:41:53 AM PDT by rickmichaels
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is getting flak over what critics say is a partisan new paint job given to the military plane that flies him to overseas events.
The Royal Canadian Air Force recently had RCAF-01, the specially outfitted CC-150 Polaris used by the prime minister, in the shop for a "heavy maintenance" checkup, a $2.5-million routine it goes through every six years.
The plane normally gets a new paint job during this checkup, but instead of coming out of the shop with a fresh coat of its dull, nondescript greenish grey, it came out with a sparkling red, white, and blue paint job with lots of swooshes and swoops.
Using red, white, and blue paint on the plane cost $50,000 more than the old paint would.
And it didn't matter to the opposition that the red, white, and blue of RCAF-01 happens to be the official colours of the Royal Canadian Air Force. All they could see was the red, white, and blue of the Conservative Party of Canada.
"I don't think we've ever seen a government in Canadian history that so readily blurred the lines between government money and party money," NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters Friday. "The colours of the plane, the whole detailing, is clearly patterned on the Conservative Party."
In the House of Commons, Liberal MP John McCallum kept it up.
"I did not think the government could come up with one action that would waste money, hurt the Canadian Forces, and inflate the prime minister's ego all at once." he said.
Conservative MPs defended the plane's new livery.
"This repainting (was) part of the routine maintenance. It is a small proportion of the overall cost. And it is done with a view to promoting Canada, promoting Canada's interest abroad, in our best traditions, as we have always done," said Conservative MP Chris Alexander.
Harper will put his freshly painted jet to its first use next week to take cabinet ministers, aides, and a group of Parliamentary Press Gallery reporters to Europe, where he will touch down in London, Paris and Dublin before finishing up at the annual G8 summit to be held this year in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.
While he's London, Harper will give a speech to the U.K. Parliament, an honour not afforded a Canadian prime minister since William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1944.
Old and New Paint Jobs:
Good points. I think something more understated, with the Coat of Arms displayed prominently, would be better.
Or a Beaver on Floats. No Beaver jokes please.
I don’t think anyone in the world, through history, lives like the current POTUS. He has, unfortunately, abused the perks the American taxpayer afford him for his personal security while holding that office. So did Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker. It seems to come down to the vanity and selfishness of the person holding a given office.
Part of me agree with your monk propositionm but as a practical matter, I don’t have a problem with a governmental leader having a jet designated for official functions. Given the demands of their schedules it’s not inappropriate. Remember, most of their work days begin around 7a and can go till at least 10p. It would just be appreciated if the office holders who are given these luxurious perks showed some respect for the taxpayers who make them available to him/her. That would not include having the missus take a 2nd government jet hours before or after the POTUS, or jets to whisk adolescent daughters to Mexico or the Caribbean.
An aircraft painted Emergency Orange? Way to inspire confidence in prospective passengers, eh?
I seriously doubt that most of them perform more than 4 hrs of actual government work per day on average.
no “camo” paint job in the world is gonna make an airframe built for civilian mass transit any more survivable in a “combat area”.
If this airframe was used to support military efforts, it would be landing at fully secured airfields far away from any actual threat.
Civilian type airframes just do not have the stress tolerances built into them to allow for any useful “combat survival” maneuvering.
Well, seeing as how I’m helping to pay for this, I get to voice my opinion. I LOVE it !!
Good that it has the RCAF logo, as it is an RCAF aircraft.
Give me another 4, 8, or 12 years of Stephen Harper.
“Or a Beaver on Floats.”
A truly celestial aircraft; I’ve flown on #0058 a couple of times. ;^)
Great planes. I haven’t had a flight in one since the 70s.
Mmm. A plate of poutine. Now that would be nice.
Lousy job. It took them two tries before they spelled “Government” correctly.
The interior reminds me of an old LandRover. My favorite plane is the Beechcraft Bonanza, which flew me faithfully doing geophysics back in ‘69.
Great times.
The Beaver was utilitarian. The Bonanza was a luxury single. I’ve never seen a Bonanza on floats. But there is probably an Edo equipped one out there somewhere.
The Beechcraft DeHavilland Bonanza we flew was a twin-engine made in the early ‘50s. Cruised at 120, stalled at 58.
Recall, “W” was in the office at 7 (or 7:30am), it’s meeting after meeting, some substantive about governing, i.e., bill signing, meeting w/cabinet and/or world leaders, etc., others symbolic (greeting the Superbowl or Little League Champs), and often goes thru dinner time. When there’s a State Dinner, or press conference, it’s easily till 10pm. It’s not all tea and crumpets (at least when done right).
That is confusing. There was a twin Bonanza but it was replaced by th Beechraft Baron. I don’t remember a Beechcraft DeHavilland joint venture. But I’ve been wrong before. : )
Your memory is correct - the DeHavilland notion was a brain spasm...
It wouldn’t have surprized me if they had a joint venture. I have brain spasms all the time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.