The prime minister wants his private Airbus 310-A repainted into bright red and white instead of the stodgy, old military gray.
He dreams of riding around in a fantasy aircraft, like a real prime minister of a powerful country. It would make him feel so much better, almost like a U.S. president sitting in Air Force One.
The military say “No.” Stick to plain old military gray, like all the other Canadian government aircraft.
What about nice aboriginal art on the tail section, his aides ask? Or maybe a nice red maple leaf ? Or a royal crown? It’s part of the Royal Canadian Air Force, after all.
Maybe we could paint some lines from ‘O Canada’ with French on one side and English on the other -- “de fleurons glorieux” and “True North strong and free.”
Or maybe a painted scene from Western Canada on one side, tar sands with dead water birds lying around, and for Eastern Canada some homeless people holding up a big grasping bank on their shoulders.
That could run into a couple of million dollars, but what’s that when you’re already 31 billion bucks in deficit this year? A lot better for the image than a $2 million artificial lake in Toronto.
Defense minister Peter MacKay is dead set against a gussied-up “Harpercraft” so he’s told his military people to put off the PM’s paint job until 2013. How’s that for a nice cut-back!
