Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.
There was a story on the evening news recently about Prime Minister Stephen Harper flying off to somewhere and it showed him climbing the stairs to his plane with his parting view to us as usual, but what really caught my attention was that he really looked like he didn’t want to go.
Head down, one hand on the rail as he trudged up the stairs and when he got to the top, not even a turn and a waive. He just got on and the door closed. Again, he looked like he was muttering to himself: “Why me, why do I have to go there again. They don’t understand me and I hate the food?”
Anyway, unlike other foreign trips where he’s often hand-in-hand with his wife Laureen as they climb the stairs, turn, smile and waive, then board the plane, this time the Prime Minister looked weary and dragged out; fed up with travelling.
In fact, I bet if someone asked him what he’d rather be doing than flying for eight or 10 hours with an entourage of staff and various other invitees, including the Press, he’d probably say: “Nothing.”
Some may say he does a lot of that already but I’m not going to get political.
However, but staying on a political note for a moment, what about Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and his recent travels to Syria and most recently the Ukraine, to have a fist-hand look at what’s going on over there and to evaluate how Canada can help?
He too must be weary of hopping on planes to far-off places then coming back to report to the PM where and how much money Canada should give in aid to these troubled countries.
Flying from Ottawa to Kyiv (about 14,400km round trip) and Syria (about 17,500km round trip) adds up to almost 32,000km and that’s a lot for any one person is a relatively short period of time.
And so is the amount of financial assistance that Canada has agreed to provide those two countries as a result of travelling all of those miles just to see how desperate the people really are.
I sympathize with the situation(s) and applaud Canada in general for stepping up to help but I also have a bit of a problem with our government committing $631.7 million in Humanitarian and Development Assistance to Syria and just recently, another $220.0 million to Ukraine for, as Minister Baird says, “To promote sustainable economic growth, democratic development and good governance.”
That’s all well and good but I think if Foreign Affairs Minister Baird had flown northwest about 750km from Ottawa instead of about 32,000km east to Syria and Ukraine, he would have also seen a place worthy of Government assistance “To promote sustainable economic growth,……”
It’s called the “Ring of Fire” and it’s also in need of our Federal Government’s support.
I mentioned here last month about the importance of the “Ring of Fire” to the Canadian economy and how it could be Ontario’s equivalent in value to Alberta’s oil sands but unlike the oil sands, there’s no suitable access to the site.
It needs a road, plain and simple, and I think we could build a pretty damn good one from some of the $851.7 million Canada has and is providing in assistance to, once again, “Promote sustainable economic growth” in other countries.
Let’s hope that Prime Minister Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Baird think about that on their next ‘humanitarian’ flight overseas to dole out our money.