Is Flying 2nd Class.
A Big Flap continues this week on whether Chief of Staff General Walter Natynczyk should pay out of his own pocket for private related travel or else fly commercial.
The General's initial response was for the public to buzz off - so to speak and that he had every right to fly free in military jets.
Indeed he tried to suggest that these planes needed to be in the air anyway for training purposes and his being aboard did not add to the overall cost.
The poor General needs a Spinmeister.
His excuse was a little far fetched.
Plus it obviously ran counter to Prime Minister Harper's position whereby he reimburses the cost of his flights on a commercial basis. For instance, if he flies to Vancouver for a football game, by Challenger Jet and a comparable flight with Air Canada would have cost $3k - Harper pays to the General Revenues the $3,000 cost.
They are both wrong though in their approach to this issue.
And in any event, it all hit the fan today when Harper met with the beleaguered General and demanded that he repay the cost of a recent flight he had taken to join his family on holiday in the Caribbean.
Even though the poor General had to miss the commercial flight with his family since he was meeting the bodies of four of our soldiers coming into Canada from Afghanistan.
The Right Answer to all of this is that neither the Chief of Staff nor the Prime Minister should be paying for their "private travel". For the Simple Reason that when it comes to these two gentlemen, Neither One Has Private Travel; they are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Similar in fact to what the President of the United States experiences.
There are a couple of others who I believe should qualify for this special status including the Minister of Finance, External Affairs, and Public Security.
The planes any of these officers take, should standby ready to whisk them back to wherever they are needed.
Anything less is simply bush league.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
