Dalton McGuinty flew to Northwestern Ontario yesterday in a slowish, cramped plane made even more congested because it was carrying the ghost of Bill Davis.
The Ontario Premier travelled in a King Air 350, one of two such planes the government owns to ferry politicians, officials, the Lieutenant-Governor and forest-management workers around the sprawling province. The six-year-old twin-engine turboprops are considered the Cadillacs of their class. They seat eight people -- okay, the ninth seat is a bench over the toilet -- but they're safe and not as noisy as older models. But consider this: The cabin is 4 feet 9 inches high and Mr. McGuinty is 6 foot 2.
You won't hear the Premier and any of his similarly vertically blessed staff complain, however. They know the story. They may watch enviously at first ministers meetings as Quebec Premier Jean Charest descends from his sleek Challenger jet but they know that Canada's fat-cat province will being sticking with the turboprop as long as politicians swap stories.
And even the youngest people on Mr. McGuinty's staff know how Mr. Davis got his backside burned in 1981 when he bought a $10.6-million Challenger jet. The controversy over the purchase raged for about 15 months. Even though the plane was customized so it could also be used as an air ambulance, the former Progressive Conservative premier was accused of favouring luxury at the expense of voters who were struggling at the time with joblessness and high interest rates.
Stuart Smith, then the Liberal leader, noted that the "executive" jet was being acquired at a time when 18,000 Ontario children needed hearing aids. Jim Bradley, the current Tourism Minister and a man who hates flying, did everything but invoke the plight of widows and orphans in moving a motion to force the government to sell the jet. "It does little to help people, such as laid-off auto workers, financially strapped senior citizens, struggling farmers, the desperate single parent or perhaps the forgotten psychiatric patient," he said.
The motion failed, but six months later Mr. Davis bowed to the inevitable and traded in the jet for two water bombers that could be used to fight forest fires. John Tory, the current Conservative Leader who was then working in the premier's office, helped persuade Mr. Davis to give up the jet. Later, he got from his boss a set of photos of the plane's interior as a reminder of a government plane that never flew in Ontario. "It is just one of those issues," Mr. Tory said.
No one failed to heed the lessons of the fiasco. "It's legendary and everyone rightfully learned from it," said a veteran of the Ernie Eves government.
The New Democratic Party government in the early 1990s, mired in the worst recession in a half-century, didn't even consider upgrading government aircraft. "It's a symbolic issue but it's also an issue of substance," said a former member of Bob Rae's staff. "It would be bad optics but I also think it would be legitimately hard for working-class people to swallow."
Mike Harris was forced to confront the issue a few years later after the King Air 200s dating from the late 1970s that were then in use were damaged -- one when it did a belly landing after the landing gear failed and another when it was flipped after being caught in the backwash of a CF-18 jet. John Snobelen, who as natural resources minister was responsible for government aircraft, said every option was considered and there wasn't much financial difference between jet and turboprop. "It wasn't like one was clearly a whole lot better than the other," he said.
In 2000, the premier's office paid $7.6-million (U.S.) after trade-in for the pair of King Airs now in service. The decision was made partly because the aircraft were more suitable for flying to remote locations but Mr. Snobelen recalls that was "no question" that the Davis experience weighed heavily on the decision makers.
Even though the jet had been rejected, there was enough nervousness that fleeting consideration was given to painting the new aircraft to resemble the ones going out of service in the hope that no one would notice.
No one did but no one in government knows if that indifference applies to jets as well. And no one wants to find out.