The Conservatives had to deal with a minor travel hiccup today. It was nothing like the problems the Liberals had Tuesday night but it does have to do with air travel.
The Conservatives were planning to fly this afternoon from Hamilton International Airport to Bagotville, Que. and from there, take a bus to an evening rally tonight in Chicoutimi.
But it is raining, we are told, in Bagotville, and, because of some airport construction that is underway the only runway we could land on is a little on the short side, given the slick conditions.
So instead, Capt. Jack Adams, the pilot of Sweater Vest Air, has decided to fly directly into Chicoutimi. The runway there, we are told, is a little bit narrower than Bagotville's strip but it's longer. So given the weather conditions, Capt. Adams would rather have long and narrow in Chicoutimi than shorter and wider in Bagotville to put down the aircraft we will all be travelling in. We will be taking a bus from Chicoutimi to our hotel tonight in Trois-Rivieres.
Prime Minister Harper, by the way, was asked about the Liberal troubles this morning and said this:
“I'm not going to relish any particular logistical troubles they may be having. Campaigns are very difficult massive undertakings. I've done a lot of these and I've been very fortunate to have a great team — notwithstanding a couple of war room errors – a great team, especially on the logistical side. We've never really had any significant problems, fingers crossed.
He was asked about those troubles in terms of whether it makes Conservative feel additional confidence about the election's campaign:
“I don't think Conservatives can ever be overconfident. We generally don't govern the country. We may be a little bit ahead in the polls now. Three weeks ago there were polls that actually had us trailing. So there is no reason to be confident and we've got to work hard, not just to win, but to get a strong mandate because there is real risk, if you look at the tasx-and-spend and agendas of the other parties that they may well combine against us. So we've got to get a very strong mandate if we want to keep this country on track.”
“… there is real risk, if you look at the tasx-and-spend and agendas of the other parties that they may well combine against us. …”
Not only was there an alliance made and announced last year, but there's also the very overt intrusion into a federal election from a provincial premier, possibly with some arm-twisting of the members of his provincial party going on. Add vote-swapping, which is another campaign that has been started, and we end up with a corruption of the democratic process, IMO.
All the more reason for people to be informed and get out to vote, based on information, not on strategic voting or other reasons.