The Minister of Defense is once again under siege for his impromptu helicopter extraction from a fishing trip as he stands accused of lying in his initial version of events. Today's poll question; should Peter MacKay resign? The Prime Minister says the the Minister was recalled from vacation and thus they sent a helicopter so that they could conduct government business. However the connecting flight was only a 2 hour drive from the cottage, making the helicopter part of it appear rather unnecessary. Or perhaps they were overdue on training to evacuate VIPs from cottages? Come on, if you don't practice every so often, you don't know what can happen in an emergency. I'm a little bit disappointed, but not angry about this incident. Some pundits and politicians are furious.
Regardless, Peter MacKay won't resign and he will not be dismissed over this controversy. Truth is the Tories have reduced Challenger flights by 80% since taking over for the Liberals. I'd be curious to see how many Challenger air miles Ralph Goodale collected while working as a minister of the crown.
I don't think he should resign, but I DO think he should pay back the $30 large that his big yellow taxi trip cost; if we're going to claim that our party is better than the LIEberals', it should walk the walk instead of bloviate and avoid the way that thief Chretien did everytime they were caught using our money as their personal piggy-bank.
ReplyDeleteSDC
The trip did not cost $30,000! from what I can gather the cost of a small helicpoter is about $1,000 an hour. A Cormorant is at most $5,000 an hour. A straight run from where Mckay was to the Gander Airport would probably be about a half hour.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this was a case of killing two birds with one stone, a trip, plus a demonstration of the AC's capabilities. If this becomes a habbit of McKay, or the Government then I think its time to complain, until then its a tempest in a teapot.
Rob West, Ottawa
Do the forces have the equipment they need to do their job? Are the members of the forces trained and up to date? These are questions the Minister of National Defence needs to ask and answer. How to get the answer? Does he ask his Chief of Defence? Does he ask NDHQ? Does he get out of his office and go on a training mission of two. I opt for the latter. The MoD had a first hand look at the operations of a SAR team as they did their regular training. This MoD should be commended for what he did not condemned.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been involved in the forces for many years now but back in the day any member could fly standby on the regular cross country run made by the Forces 707 for free. Why? Because the seat was going there anyway whether it was full or empty. McKay used the same principle. Since during regular training the Cormorant was going to be in the air looking for a remote location anyway why not fill the empty seat with his own butt.
To Rob West
ReplyDeleteIncorrect...the cost of the flight is $32,000 per hour as stated by DND. Since the flight was a half-hour, then it cost the taxpayer $16,000 for his pick up. Aside from a poor decision by the Minister and a waster of money, the issue is that the Minister (lied, mislead, re-directed, pick your choice) told the House a different story.
Im sorry, but that is the total cost of the Helo, cost of the crew etc. divided by the number of hours flown(it has to fly a min number of hours per year so the crew can remain current) What we have to take into consideration is how much extra it cost to go pick up McKay, I am willing to bet it is nowhere near $32,000.
ReplyDeleteRob West
if they weren't picking up mckay they would be flying patterns, doing the equlivent of touch and goes to remain proficent. the money on the flight would have been spent going nowhere. it cost the same per hour to train as it does to actually go somewhere. the same applys to liberals when in power as well as conservatives. it is a non issue.
ReplyDeleteBased upon his record, I think we should cut him a little slack on this one. If it was Moore taking the flight, that would be another matter.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I don't buy the "I only put it in a little bit, so it wasn't rape" defence; if our party is ACTUALLY better than the alternative, they have to prove it. Wasn't it just a relatively short while ago that I read (and agreed with) scathing commentary on "I'm entitled to my entitlements" and the price of a pack of gum? McKay knew that this would stink to high heaven, which was why the guise of a "training mission" was concocted, yet he still went ahead with it; if he had the foresight to know how this would resonate with taxpayers, why the hell didn't he just leave his fishing lodge an hour earlier and avoid this crap to begin with?
ReplyDeleteSo the cost is $32,000 per hour.
ReplyDeleteNo bitching about the per hour cost if the plane is empty during training,
only if a Conservative Minister is aboard.
Pure bs.
Wilson, you can't tell me that if positions were reversed, and this was a LIBERAL minister ordering up a SAR helicopter just so he could spend an extra hour fishing, that we wouldn't all be screaming about this on BT. I was led to believe that if it's wrong when someone does it, it's wrong when ANYONE does it, but does that somehow go away when it's our party in power?
ReplyDeleteI,m with Wilson..They train 100,s of hours while empty,just so they can perform these types of missions.What is the problem...Every time a Conservative farts all the pot heads come out and say the air is polluted..What kind of bizarro world are we now living in when a defense minister gets shit on and all hell breaks loose for flying to a defense meeting,but the Green Party member Elizabeth May can represent another country at the GW conference and next to nothing in the press
ReplyDeleteLook, if Peter McKay was a liberal you would be all over him about entitlements and waste. As a nation , need to agree on one standard of conduct and hold all MPs to that standard. Frankly, I am sick of all politicians complaining about the other side's conduct and then they partake in that same loathsome behavior and defend it. all politicians of all parties do it...and I am sick of it.
ReplyDeleteWill McKay resign...of course not. Will Liberals complain? Yes. And some day when the Conservatives are out of power the arguments will be the same but the parties will have reversed. We, as voters, are suckers...and the politicians we support and oppose play us like suckers.
My take on it is i don't care was a bad mistake maybe but this is such a minor issue.
ReplyDeleteJayme
If this was a Liberal Minister "you would be all over him" is an interesting argument that I hear all the time. Would I be furious if this had been Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were in power? It's possible. But what about Liberal MPs who are furious about this and formerly frequenlty abused their Challenger priviledges when they were in power? Their tangible hypocrisy is a greater moral violation than my alleged hypothetical hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteWould the Libloggers be going bananas right now if this had been Ralph Goodale circa 2003? I doubt it.
No name commentors,
ReplyDeleteback in the good old days, the Liberal media would not have reported such events,
Back in the good old days, the Liberal media would not have filed ATI requests trying to play gotcha.
Peter McKay has been and will continue to be an exceptional Defence Minister.
10 X better than ANY of the previous Liberal administration's Defence Ministers.
Our Minister of Defence can hop on a military asset ANY TIME HE thinks it is necessary or usefull. That's his job, that's his decision.
Keep up the nitpic bs LibDippers,
maybe the Government will poll 70% in next years Nanos 'right/wrong direction'.
It doesn't matter to me what the liberals say, because experience should tell us that they will never give the other side ie: conservatives a positive comment about anything they ever do, they will always look for a fault or spin it as one. But lets face it Peter MacKay is a small c conservative and a self serving career politician and pro-monarchist before he is Canadian. As a Canadian I am so tired of this kind of person in our great country. The man should be a liberal, thats why he so readily dated Stronach and now married an Omar Kadar sympathizer. Like Margaret Trudeau these types of women and people are always activists for people outside their own country. What about the Jeffrey Baldwins of Canada? I know they don't bring that big ethnic vote these career types covet.
ReplyDeleteGod help this great country of ours and thank God Stephen Harper became the conservative leader. But mark my words, thats what MacKay is coveting.