Ottawa

The minister enjoys a good helicopter ride

The Globe further complicates Peter MacKay’s complicated explanation for his helicopter ride in July 2010.

Earlier this fall, when the contentious 2010 flight first came to light, the Defence Minister’s office defended the 30-minute trip from the vacation spot to the Gander airport as an infrequent opportunity to watch the rescuers in action. “After cancelling previous efforts to demonstrate their search-and-rescue capabilities to Minister MacKay over the course of three years, the opportunity for a simulated search and rescue exercise finally presented itself in July of 2010,” Mr. MacKay’s office said in September.

But the Defence Minister got a chance in 2009 to see the SAR crew in action when they took him on a ride that lasted about one hour. The Globe has learned it took place at the same time of year.

Of course, as I noted on Friday, the search-and-rescue reasoning has been dropped from the public explanation for the minister’s trip.

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