Social media pokes fun at Harper with names for new campaign plane
Haydn Watters | CBC News | Posted: September 2, 2015 4:10 PM | Last Updated: September 4, 2015
#NameHarpersPlane submissions draw on Duffy Trial and recession
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper unveiled his campaign plane Tuesday morning in Toronto, a chartered Air Canada Airbus 319 wrapped with the Conservative Party's logo and colours. But it doesn't have a name yet.
The CBC's James Cudmore, who is covering the Harper campaign, revealed Tuesday that reporters have a tradition of nicknaming the party planes. During the last federal election in 2011, reporters dubbed the Conservative jet ScaremongAir, while the Liberal plane was called UnnecessAir and the NDP's was known as Hipster Air.
Shortly after that revelation, #NameHarpersPlane started trending on Twitter.
Some took inspiration from the names of real airlines.
There were homages to Air Canada, WestJet... even the Gimli Glider incident, the nickname for the 1983 Air Canada flight that glided to safety after running out of fuel.
And why stop at Canadian-based airlines? Some Twitter users tweaked the names of international air carriers, like Ireland's Aer Lingus and Germany's Lufthansa.
Of course, there were more than a few jokes inspired by the Duffy trial.
The trial is on break until November, but that didn't stop users from incorporating tweets about unread emails, the $90,000 and Ray Novak, Harper's current chief of staff.
And because we're talking airlines, why not pay tribute to Senator Nancy Ruth and the ice-cold camembert?
The Conservative senator slammed airline breakfast foods back in April.
She told reporters she shouldn't be expected to eat flight breakfasts with her now infamous line, "If you want ice-cold camembert with broken crackers, have it!"