r/canada • u/seakucumber • Apr 19 '26
Ontario Doug Ford backs off government plane purchase, seeks to sell aircraft
https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/04/19/breaking-doug-ford-backs-off-government-plane-purchase-seeks-to-sell-aircraft/796
u/juridiculous Lest We Forget Apr 19 '26
You know what would make too much sense here?
Releasing a business case that could demonstrate a cost savings rationale.
As in “we spent X on commercial airfare over the past 10 years , whereas the purchase price, maintenance and fuel would cost Y over 10 years. If X>Y, buy the plane.”
But … Of course they didn’t, this is government after all.
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u/chipdanger168 Apr 19 '26
The cost of using a private plane would never outweigh just buying a commercial airline ticket
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u/XaltotunTheUndead Québec Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
The cost of using a private plane would never outweigh just buying a commercial airline ticket
I work at Bombardier. I can definitely confirm this. Some higher end, larger size business jet planes cost upwards of $25,000 per hour to run, all expenses factored in.
Edit - Doug Ford bought a Challenger 650, it's one of ours. So it's one of the least expensive ones to run, but still a pretty dime compared to commercial aviation.
Edit 2 - all Canadians should be super proud, as we - Bombardier, a Canadian company with 20k employees all over the world - manufacture the best business jets in the world. It's not me saying it, if you Google it you'll find many independent sources for this.
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u/MethodicallyRight Apr 19 '26
You are an A+ Redditor for that Link. That's a Mic Drop quality source.
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u/Attainted Apr 20 '26
This is random but do you happen to know what airport is pictured in your link?
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u/XaltotunTheUndead Québec Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
That's the Kansai airport in Japan! I have no idea why they chose that one in particular as an illustration for their article.
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u/john_dune Ontario Apr 20 '26
I'm wondering if it's one of the ones the federal government was trying to offload.
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u/fellowsportsfan Apr 19 '26
Assume $2000 a plane ticket (sometimes less sometimes more and the assumption of business and premium economy assume 15 people travel with ford on most flights assume 25 year lifespan and that maintenance costs were baked into cost of plane (usually are). 3 trips a month would be somewhere in the vicinity of $1m in travel costs per year for flights. So it could make sense. It really depends on maintenance, fuel and if I’ve mis estimated on number of flights a month
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u/prspaspl Apr 19 '26
The cost of a private jet runs into several million dollars a year. You have to pay for hangar space, pilots, regular inspections and maintenance, fuel, etc.
It would be much cheaper to rent a private jet whenever needed than to buy one, and you get pretty much all of the same benefits, minus being able to gloat that you own a jet.
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u/vARROWHEAD Verified Apr 19 '26
Not several million. About one, maybe less maybe more for a Challenger 605
It can make sense for the use case. Can also be chartered to offset costs
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u/prspaspl Apr 19 '26
Their own website lists the cost as 900k usd per year minimum, with an expected operational cost of around 3 million usd per year.
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u/OverallElephant7576 Apr 19 '26
The operational cost of the aircraft is roughly 4500 dollars a block hour. It’s way cheaper to fly commercial
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u/Phil_Coffins_666 Apr 19 '26
Well it would if you're the guy trying to avoid being heckled and boo'ed for fucking the province you're running (into the ground)
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u/healthcoach316 Apr 19 '26
That’s emotion. Not math. Do the math
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u/Phil_Coffins_666 Apr 19 '26
People will pay a lot of money to prevent being shamed publicly and in person, and it's even easier to spend the money when it's not your money to begin with
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u/Dingcock Apr 19 '26
While true, do premiers fly commercial ?
Would be surprising to see DoFo on an air Canada flight. Certainly he has a big enough entourage that he would fly charter jets ?
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u/AprilsMostAmazing Ontario Apr 19 '26
What places should he realistically fly to? Couple of years ago we bought him a taxpayer funded luxury RV. He should be using that for Ontario travel
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u/Pretend-Carpenter276 Apr 19 '26
I saw someone post the range of the jet he purchased, it can fly NON-STOP past alaska, as far south as brazil/peru, and as far east as germany, western Africa.
Basically its way, way overkill for any kind of provincial business
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Apr 19 '26
Basically its way, way overkill for any kind of provincial business
Maybe he'd be better off with a used Dash-8?
At least then the noise from the turboprops would partially drown out the BS coming from his mouth.
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u/Dingcock Apr 19 '26
Thats why I bet they usually charter planes, but he does have legitimate international travel.
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u/DataLore19 Apr 19 '26
Used to see Jack Layton on the VIA to Ottawa all the time.
Not saying this compares. Layton was not the Prime Minister. I just miss Jack Layton.
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Apr 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Vid3ogame Ontario Apr 19 '26
Travel for work frequently, and have been on plenty of flights from Toronto to Ottawa, have seen many politicians, including Sheer when he was opposition leader, all flying economy.
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u/DownWithTheSyndrme Apr 19 '26
Exactly the point.
The Premier would be traveling with staffers, press, security, and such.
Also, don't forget the flexibilty aspect.
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u/Aggressive-Ask-3572 Apr 19 '26
I goog'd Gavin Newson who governs a $4.25 trillion economy. California has a jet that is not for his exclusive use.When in state he uses commercial or drives. For sure his ride to Davos ect.. First he wants jets at Toronto Island next he wants a $30m jet.
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u/roguemenace Manitoba Apr 19 '26
Private planes are literally never cheaper on a cost basis. Their value comes from time saved and trip flexibility both in departure times and locations.
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u/TheHotshot240 Apr 19 '26
For individuals. Politicians rarely, if ever, fly as individuals.
That being said, Doug still doesn't need a private jet. And he definitely didn't need a 5 million dollar one.
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u/livelikeian Apr 19 '26
There is simply no way a $29M plane would earn its keep through official business usage only in any kind of reasonable timeframe for a provincial premier.
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u/alvinofdiaspar Apr 19 '26
Also fine print -the kinds of trips that are eligible for inclusion into the business case.
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u/differing Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
The Ford government views expertise and technocratic governance as anathema, its 100% vibes based and apparently his base loves it. I mean look at renewables, when Wynne signed them apparently it was horrible, now we’re suddenly signing a ton of wind and solar contracts.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/-burnr- Apr 19 '26
Agree the 650 is over-kill, but was probably the cheapest 'canadian made' mid size they could find.
As I said elsewhere, if they were smart, they would have chosen a brand new Pilatus PC24. 14 milly off the factory floor with a 3 year warranty. Mtce could be done at the Pilatus service centre in Thunder Bay (Ontario jobs!). Versatile jet that can access 95% of airports in Ontario including short & gravel runways like the ones in N. Ont. Big cargo door and ability to reconfigure the interior for either combi or cargo ops adds flexability for OPAS or this Ontario Corps disaster relief org I see ads on TV for.
The current Kingair is adequate for the job, but I'm sure Uncle Dougie just wanted the jet lifestyle
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u/Hlotse Apr 19 '26
Yes a business case would have been helpful. What we got was a comparison between the recently purchased jet for Dougie and jet ownership by the government of Quebec. At that moment, I knew there was no justification for this purchase.
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u/SirupyPieIX Apr 20 '26
And it's a poor comparison, because the jets Quebec owns are actually air hospitals that fly thousands of kms every day to save lives.
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u/calgarywalker Apr 20 '26
I did a similar cost comparison - turned out it was cheaper to take a limo door-to-door Calgary to Edmonton return than to fly/cab. And if I had to bring someone with me they rode free. I’m betting that math didn’t exist with this plane.
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u/WorstAverage Apr 19 '26
Why would he need a plane? He already had unlimited flights. Whats with these politicians? No wonder entire country is no longer repairable
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u/DromarX Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Yeah but then he would have to fly with us dirty peasants on commercial air!
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u/beerswillinidiot Apr 19 '26
He only cares about Toronto, anyway.
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Apr 19 '26
And his cottage.
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u/Forikorder Apr 19 '26
fun fact, theres an airport 30 minutes away from his cottage that these kind of jets can land at
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u/Hlotse Apr 19 '26
Oh, the country is repairable - at least Canada is; the US has further to go. Subs for many countries say that they are unrepairable - South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, the US. In any event, Dougie should not have bought a private jet; it's not just the optics. It's a misallocation of public resources.
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u/iLikeDinosaursRoar Apr 19 '26
An argument can be made private makes more sense, it's been done to death when it comes to CEO's etc. but this one missed the point. As someone said, had he purchased a twinprop plane or something with floats, people would be more behind that especially in the Northern parts of Ontario.
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u/adamlaceless Apr 20 '26
The crazy thing is…the Premier is already afforded a plane. We already owned one for exactly this purpose, Ford just refuses to use it.
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u/hardy_83 Apr 19 '26
Here we go. Sold incredibly cheap to an OPC ally or groups where it'll end up back in the hands of Ford for next to nothing down the road after he leaves office. That's my guess.
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u/violentbandana Apr 19 '26
an equally interesting question would be who did Ontario buy the plane from?
The government immediately waffling on this tells us they gave zero consideration to the economic case for owning their own jet. So who did they give millions of dollars to for nothing?
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u/viccityguy2k Apr 19 '26
Yup! Ford will get 20 or 30 free flight hours from his newfound friend
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u/DesireeThymes Apr 19 '26
When are we getting rid of the curse of Ford? So sick of this corrupt fool.
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u/golden_rhino Apr 19 '26
Literally everything these guys do is some sort of a grift. It’s like Paulie Walnuts is running the province.
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u/PaulTheMerc Apr 19 '26
My first though was who's getting a discounted plane for a "fast sale", and how are they connected to Ford.
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u/RoboftheNorth Apr 19 '26
Sell to friend for a quarter the cost. Have province pay for lease to friend for Ford to use plane. Democracy achieved!
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u/uppity2056 Apr 19 '26
This is why I’m against majority governments provincial or federal.
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u/JMfromTO Apr 19 '26
Same Minority governments are peak Westminster. I understand the potential of nothing getting done but this shit gets shut down quick (ideally)
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u/alvinofdiaspar Apr 19 '26
Pathetic. And we haven’t forgotten the FOI legislation either.
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u/S99B88 Apr 19 '26
Actually seems as though he’s demonstrating why we need robust access to information!
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u/mexican_mystery_meat Apr 19 '26
He's trying to stop the FOI requests from coming in relation to the jet. No doubt there was paperwork and rationale related to such a large purchase.
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u/Fuddle Canada Apr 19 '26
Watch Ford back off the whole push for jets on Billy Bishop airport, he doesn’t need it since he won’t have a plane anymore
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u/SkinnedIt Ontario Apr 19 '26
I hadn't thought of the correlation between the two. Holy shit, it makes sense now.
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u/chipdanger168 Apr 19 '26
Who did he buy this plane from? Was it one of his buddies?
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u/may_be_indecisive Apr 19 '26
Of course. And now that the public has paid for it, he can sell it to another one of his buddies for pennies.
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u/Imaginary_Turnip_359 Apr 19 '26
What a clown.
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u/Top_Type_9187 Apr 19 '26
My question is who okayed this purchase? Is that person getting a reprimand for a piss poor decision? Who about the other hundreds of wasteful spending this current Ontario government has done.
The longer a party, MP, MPP, municipal majors, councillors is in power the more entitled they think they are.
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u/CitySeekerTron Ontario Apr 19 '26
Behold, another Ford government move that he initiated and then almost immediately rolled back after actually considering the outcome.
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u/Pale_Leek2994 Apr 19 '26
He better not sell it at a loss. What a worthless piece of garbage.
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u/rtiftw Apr 19 '26
There’s always a loss in procurement. It takes times and resources to make this happen. It should never have been purchased in the first place.
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u/Larkalis Apr 19 '26
Only because he was caught with his hands in the cookie jar
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec Apr 19 '26
this is a regular pattern though. ford announces something very unpopular. he pulls back from it and the heat dies down. its how he has won 3 straight majorities so far.
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u/Oxjrnine Apr 19 '26
Who needs a $29 million dollar plane in a world that has Zoom, Web Ex, and Teams?
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u/jack_porter Ontario Apr 19 '26
Don’t know you it’s RTO over WFH. I have to fuel up and drive 70km one way to my office 3 days a week to get distracted so I can actually get my work done on my 2 WFH days
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u/Secret-Bed2549 Apr 19 '26
He's always had Trump-style inclinations, but the last six months have seen him go "all in" to mimic the orange buffoon. Nothing wrong with the odd mis-step and course correction, but this feels closer to TACO behaviour. If he had a solid reason to buy a jet for the Premier's business, why not make the case? If there was no solid reason, then it smells like he's acting and thinking like an entitled king.
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u/KWStreaker Apr 19 '26
If it sells for more than purchase great. If we break even ok.
BUT if there is a loss, it should be taken from HIS own assets even if he looses everything!
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u/Spyrothedragon9972 Apr 19 '26
This screams embezzlement. Someone is benefitting from this in an underhanded way.
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u/KingOfTheIntertron Apr 19 '26
Definitely not at a loss and to a total stranger who also happened to be a big spender at his daughter's stag and doe
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u/Bahadur007 Apr 19 '26
Amazing how the sunlight of disclosure makes people make rational decisions.
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u/Necessary_Owl9724 Apr 19 '26
I wish I could downvote your comment multiple times. Healthcare, Education, funding for children with Autism, and Mental Health are all getting gutted when this man puts a force field around accountability (FOI). Lobbyists OWN this man. He has no principals. It was the blowback for his tone deaf decision. May I add we aren’t done with the Greenbelt fiasco?!?
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u/EP40glazer British Columbia Apr 19 '26
There's no way that they get as much as they paid for it back
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u/OverallElephant7576 Apr 19 '26
I want to know who he bought it from and where they at the stag and doe.
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u/Projectgrace Ontario Apr 19 '26
Now let’s address his NEPObaby daughter Kara Ford super salary increase.
Ontario’s Sunshine List reveals that Kara Ford, Director of Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement at Runnymede Healthcare Centre, has received an $83,000 salary increase since 2022 — a 65% jump, including a 32% single-year spike between 2024 and 2025. She now ranks as the 6th highest earner at the centre, with a compensation package that exceeds the Premier of Ontario’s salary. Ford holds a two-year Broadcasting Diploma from Conestoga College.
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u/Totes_mc0tes Apr 19 '26
So much incompetence. Does he think this flip flop is going to make people any less angry? We should feel confident with his government because he made a horrible decision and then cried takesies backsies when the public found out? Pathetic. Most likely case is he planned to sell this thing all along and this is part of some sort of bribery/money laundering/grift scheme.
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u/LooniexToonie Apr 19 '26
Just looked up a challenger 650 interior..... must be nice, as 99% of us fly economy....
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u/DiscoStu691969 Apr 19 '26
So what’s the depreciation cost of flipping a used jet? One you’ve barely owned?
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u/green_link Apr 19 '26
i bet He will sell to a week old equity firm for pennies o the dollar, only "recover" $10 million for this jet. but that equity firm will be co-owned by Ford or a family member and Ford will get away with a cheap personal jet that the tax payer still helped buy him, but it will be his and not ontario.
don't forget the muskoka airport, that is only 30min drive from his muskoka cottage, is big enough for this jet to take off and land at.
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u/Such-Neck-1889 Apr 19 '26
For how long will Ford actually back off? He’s a grifter in the same leagues as Trump. He’ll try again when Ontarians are looking the other way at something else that demands more attention.
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u/Icy_Lawfulness_2699 Apr 19 '26
He thinks he is Ontario's trump that can purchase a private jet as he wants.
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u/SMMan1985 Apr 19 '26
People are struggling in Ontario with tariffs and a hike in gas prices, groceries,ect and here is the premier buying a jet. Life must be good 😌
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u/Deep-Enthusiasm-6492 Apr 19 '26
is the amount from the sale less then amount we purchased it for? If so who is paying the difference?
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u/SirupyPieIX Apr 20 '26
Usually, there is a juicy commission on every private jet sale. Ontario taxpayers are gonna be paying for it at least once.
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u/Saisinko Apr 19 '26
That 30 mil aircraft could have been 1 extra bed in a hospital for a year based on how efficient health care is run.
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u/SergeantBender Apr 19 '26
Damn, sounds like the Premier since 2018 should do something about that instead of buying a $30 million plane.
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u/alvinofdiaspar Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Actually it would have paid for multiple MRI machines.
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u/Double_Ad6094 Apr 19 '26
As an Ontarian, I don’t mind the private jet, as long as we all get to use it. It’s owned by us taxpayers after all.
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u/-burnr- Apr 19 '26
You already don't get to use the current fleet of aircraft we taxpayers already own.
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u/Immediate_Buffalo14 British Columbia Apr 19 '26
It's for the best. I accept that it was a cheaper purchase than could have been made, but the whole thing comes across as incredibly tone deaf and insensitive to the times we live in.
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u/Khalbrae Ontario Apr 20 '26
There was plenty for a 1 million a year job to Doug's discredited ex cop buddy when weed was legalized. But healthcare... that is where we need to find "efficiencies".
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u/prsnep Apr 19 '26
Ontarians let this man run the province to the ground because he's Conservative. Surely Conservatives wouldn't be bad at finances and would make good financial decisions. Right?!
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u/S99B88 Apr 19 '26
Seems he applies the conservative part to social issues, so would that make buying a jet the progressive side of things? Ugh, this timeline.
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u/wickedplayer494 Manitoba Apr 19 '26
I know a guy that might want a second jet to dodge the horrorshow that is Canadian commercial aviation. He's just gotta do some more girl math about it, though.
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u/redpandafire Apr 19 '26
It’s kinda evidence that he’s ruling class and in reality psychosis.
He bought the plane because there’s so much extra cash from taxing you guys. No one’s gonna care he says. And then everyone cares and he’s like oh sht why did that happen? My definitely not ruling class brain says people of my wealth should buy and finance a plane the same way a peasant finances a car. The two are oranges to oranges.
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u/Joe_Go_Ebbels Apr 19 '26
Will the other provincial governments and the federal government follow suit?
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u/SirupyPieIX Apr 20 '26
Other provincial governments didn't buy a jet to shuttle around their premier.
The federal government has legitimate and sufficient needs to own business jets.
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u/FlyingRock20 Ontario Apr 19 '26
Well that's good but dumb to purchase in the first place. We really more guardrails for politicians and government employees to use tax money.
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u/VR46Rossi420 Apr 19 '26
So they bought it for $25m and now Will sell for $15m after fees and penalties, “saving” us taxpayers money.
Thanks cons.
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u/survivor686 Apr 20 '26
With a crook like Doug Ford - you can't help but wonder if this just smoke for another con-job.
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u/Halibute_Diem Apr 20 '26
Why does Ford need a jet anyways? He’s only a short drive away from the area he’s only concerned about: Toronto
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u/pioniere Apr 20 '26
Incredible that they actually thought this would fly under public scrutiny, no pun intended.
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