LILLEY: Ford caves to mob driven by petty jealousy, sells government jet
· Toronto Sun
In Canada, we sure do love to hate our politicians, and we really don’t like them to have nice things. The outrage over Ontario buying a plane for use by the premier and other officials is a prime example of that.
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Last Friday it was revealed that the Ontario government was buying a used Challenger 650 jet for official use by Premier Doug Ford and others.
The plan for the plane didn’t last the weekend.
“Stop the gravy plane!” screamed the opposition.
Online comments skewered the premier and his government with claims that the plane wasn’t necessary, that other jurisdictions don’t have such luxuries.
Before noon on Sunday, Ford released a statement saying that his government had heard the message loud and clear.
“Despite the best of intentions, I have heard and agree that now is not the right time for the expense of a government plane. The province is working with Bombardier and other partners to sell the plane as quickly as possible,” Ford’s statement read.
Context needed
Let’s put the outrage of the Province of Ontario spending $28.9 million into a little bit of context.
The Government of Ontario’s total budget for this year is $220 billion, meaning the total purchase price for the plane is one tenth of one percent of the budget. To put the size of the Ontario government into context, you could add the total revenues of RBC, CIBC, TD Scotiabank together and it still wouldn’t reach the same level of revenue of the Government of Ontario.
When Ford’s office was still defending the purchase last week, they pointed to Ontario’s size.
“As part of the job of being Premier of Ontario, there is extensive travel within Ontario, a province twice the landmass of Texas,” Ford’s office said last week.
In fact, Ontario’s land mass is more than Texas and California combined, and it is incredibly difficult to get around.
Let’s say Ford was going on a tour of Northern Ontario this coming week to meet with key stakeholders, local politicians and business leaders. If he wanted to leave on Wednesday and visit Sudbury, Timmins and Thunder Bay and come back on Thursday, it would require flying to each of those cities, flying back to Toronto, having a layover and then flying north to the next city again.
Yet, we insist that our political leaders do this because they can’t have nice things.
Quebec, feds have jets
Quebec has a fleet of three Challenger jets for the premier and other government officials to travel around their difficult-to-travel-in province. Quebec just purchased three brand new jets, not a decade-old used jet.
The federal government also has a fleet of Challenger jets and other aircraft to shuttle the PM, cabinet ministers and the Governor General around the world.
Furnishing our top elected officials with a government jet isn’t about making sure they travel in the lap of luxury; it’s about ensuring we are using their valuable time efficiently. Not only can’t Ford, or any future premier, visit several communities in Northern Ontario without constantly passing through Toronto, we are forcing him and his entourage to sit in airports hours ahead of time instead of getting to their destination quickly so they can get to work for us.
We are a petty people in this country, so Ford can’t have a plane, and neither can anyone else.
It’s the same reason that a decade later, 24 Sussex Drive the prime minister’s official residence, still sits empty. Each time there is a proposal to provide our highest-ranking elected official with a suitable home, there is outrage at the expense and therefore nothing is done.
Ford’s purchase of the plane was fully defensible based on the facts. Deciding to sell it might be a smart political move, but in reality, it’s a dumb decision driven by a public filled with resentment.