Quote:
Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker
^ The Martin Liberals preferred the 727 (Starjet - an aflliate of CargoJet) - in 2008 was the fuck up. The party had cancelled the contract for the 727, and hadn't firmed up the A319 enough (they had only secured a floor price and right of first refusal option - the NDP scooped the plane by offering more). They ended up with an Air Inuit 737-200 with gravel kit and integrated air stairs. Ignatieff had a 737-400 from Flair Air. Trudeau had a 737-800 from Air Transat.
I think the last time the Liberals used Air Canada was in the 2000 election, if not before that.
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Nice find on the plane porn.
The 2000 federal election - Chretien's last - had the liberals on a short term no deposit contract for an exCP 737-200. AC was still digesting CP at the time and it was the CP side that negotiated the contract with the Liberals. ExAC peeps and Liberals had a constant feud for the entirety of Chretien's tenure as PM and consequently the boys on Cote Vertu wouldn't deal with the Liberals down the road in Ottawa.
The 2004 election Martin's first, and the Liberals continued with their feud with AC, also AC was in bankruptcy and the liberal party needed another scandal like they needed a hole in their heads. Westjet didn't have the capacity for airplane rental on friendly terms to the liberal party, so the party turned to their only airline friend and party bagman, Ajay Virmani. Starjet had the 727 and the party took a little heat for flying an old airplane while talking up a green agenda, but I don,t believe green agenda was high on their list of priorities.
With the Liberals holding a majority, they got to pick the election timing and consequently did not like AC demands for a standby retainer. The Conservatives and NDP, not have control over the exact date of the election, paid for the standby retainer. The liberals tried to get AC to have an airplane available within a short time frame but would not give exact dates.
In 2006 election, the Conservatives and NDP were both in the mindset of defeating the minority Martin government and paid the standby retainer upfront. The Martin liberals wanted a negotiated price, but again did not want to pay the standby retainer that might have gone un-needed if the Layton Dippers switched sides to prop-up the Liberals and block the Harper Conservatives.
Without an airplane, the Liberals made a last ditch effort to force AC to give them an airplane, but the recovering aviation economy and burgeoning jetz charter traffic meant AC had no spare aircraft. In came the Bagman Virmani and his clunker of a 727. The Liberal environment platform was higher priority as a key wedge issue with Conservatives, but the optics backfired on the Liberals.
For the 2008 election, the Dion Liberals faced a very large bill for an AC airplane and twin sisters of dwindling campaign finances and costly leadership campaign. No money in the bank to pay the hefty airplane fees and no desire to go grovelling back to AC. Until the papers hung Dion out to dry for flying in a gas guzzler between environmental stump speeches, I don't think the Liberals knew how bad the optics were. This time the Bagman didn't have a suitable airplane so the Liberals were forced to contract with Air Inuit 737-200.
The 2010 Ignateiff election was a repeat of 2008 (no finances and a steep bill for AC airplane). 7 years of high oil prices meant the Boeing Jurassics were turned into beer cans, so the liberals got saved from the green embarrassment.
However, the inside baseball angle was that the media stories negative of the Liberal airplane choices were a cover for the fact the media universally appreciated the professionalism of the AC flight crew over the moonlighting FAs that were cobbled together for the Liberal aircraft. Had the Liberals been able to contract with WestJet and gotten their professional FA crews, the media would not have been so critical of the campaign airplane choices. The AC flight crews for the political jet charters are handpicked from the International Business cabin staff, and they know how to do their job very well.
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