On Oct. 7, the Globe and Mail carried yet another story about the supposed overuse of Canada's executive government aircraft. It's enough to make my skin crawl.
The media has taken to flailing both Chief of Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk and Defence Minister MacKay for their use of these expensive executive aircraft.
The Globe points out: "The VIP Challenger jets are back in the spotlight after it was revealed that Gen. Natynczyk used the planes 21 times in recent years to attend Forces-related pro sports events, fundraisers and - in one case - a family holiday in St. Martin."
Then, a Globe investigation found that Mr. MacKay outranked almost all his cabinet colleagues when it comes to using federal government executive jets, racking up more than $2.9-million in flights on the Challenger planes in the past four years.
"No other Tory politician aside from Stephen Harper has accumulated as much time on the VIP jets since Mr. MacKay took over the Defence portfolio in the late summer of 2007. Not former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon or Ottawa's jet-setting finance minister, Jim Flaherty, who frequently travels abroad for economic meetings."
The perception here is that using expensive government-owned and operated military planes is a bad thing. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As I see it, I do not ever want to see the chief of defence staff, defence minister, or prime minister for that matter, on a commercial aircraft.
They are all individual top-tier targets of terrorists and foreign military powers, which means any civilians on an aircraft with them are also targets. The "jet-setting finance minister," may be important, but he does not make command and control decisions for our military.
Secondly, these three individuals don't get days off. Sure, McKay may go on a fishing trip. But 24/7, he is the defence minister. The general is the top soldier in the land, period, every moment he breathes, no matter where on the planet he breathes, until he is relieved.
Yes, they may have deputies to fill in. But when it comes to things like terrorist attacks and the still very real possibility of nuclear war (think Iran or North Korea), these decisions need to be made by the top dogs. I don't want to hear that a 747 was shot down, authorized by some bureaucrat, because they couldn't reach the defence minister.
A few weeks ago we commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9/11. That whole event took place in 102 minutes. There have been several attempts since then to pull off similar attacks - from the London group who wanted to take down airliners over the Atlantic, to the shoe-bomber and underwear-bomber.
What happens if one of these fast moving, multi-pronged attacks happens again? Strike that - not if, but when? These men, Natynczyk, McKay and Harper, need to be reachable at any given time to answer the question: "Do we shoot that hijacked plane down?"
They need to be able to divert at a moment's notice to any airfield available to carry out their command and control mission, on the ground, without having to deal with a few hundred civilians also on board. They need sophisticated, encrypted communication hardware beyond just cellphones. And they need it at all times.
You sure wouldn't see this nonsense south of the border suggesting the U.S. president, secretary of defense, or top general should be flying commercial.
So get off your high horse, Globe and Mail, and start putting security ahead of dollars. These are Canadian-built jets, flown by Canadian Forces pilots who need their flight time to stay current. Whether it's an international conference or fly-fishing in Newfoundland, these are the only aircraft our top-tier military commanders should be in.
Canada is a big boy on the world stage, and a named terrorist target. We need to act like it.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net
