Harper heads for Cyprus; taking 120 evacuees from Lebanon home on his plane

Yahoo ^ | July 19, 2006 | Bruce Cheadle

[fanfan]

PARIS (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to Cyprus where he intends to take up to 120 evacuees from Lebanon home to Canada on his Canadian Forces plane.

Harper announced the surprise side trip on his week-long European diplomatic tour after a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday afternoon.

"Because of the seriousness of the situation and our relative proximity to Cyprus, we have decided to take the Canadian Forces aircraft we have been travelling on to help airlift evacuees back home," Harper said in a statement. "The aircraft will be stripped down to a skeleton staff."

Media travelling with the prime minister have been bumped to commercial flights for their return home to Canada.

Only Harper's wife, Laureen, a couple of his communications staff and his official photographer, will join him on the 3 1/2-hour flight to Cyprus where the first boatload of Canadian evacuees from Beirut was expected to arrive in the port of Larnaca sometime on Wednesday.

The surprise change in itinerary came as the Harper government was under intense criticism for perceptions that Canada has been slow to ensure the safety of its estimated 50,000 citizens in Lebanon.

Despite having one of the largest groups of nationals in Lebanon of any country in the world, Canada was only getting its first group of evacuees out of the war-torn country on Wednesday.

Several other countries began evacuating their nationals as early as Sunday - albeit in only small numbers. Canada has already lost eight citizens to an Israeli air strike.

A Harper spokeswoman says Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Harper in Paris on Wednesday expressing his "sincere condolences" for the deaths.

In response to questions, Harper denied the trip was a photo opportunity.

"It's more than a symbolic trip," he said. "There's a need for air support in Cyprus. Freeing up seats, we will have a significant number of seats to help the situation.

"I think criticism in this type of situation, given all the complexities, is inevitable one way or another," Harper added. "We believe there is a real need here. . . . We believe it's the right thing to do."

It wasn't known when the plane would be returning to Canada or its exact destination.

"Our goal is to return as soon as possible," said Sandra Buckler, Harper's communications director.

She did not give details on how they would determine which evacuees would get a ride back to Canada on Harper's plane.

Neither did she confirm reports that some of the Canadian-chartered ships would go from Lebanon to a port in southern Turkey.

[fanfan]

Canada ping.

Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[2banana]

Anyone see any irony of using Cyprus as a base to flee fighting islamic nuts when half the island of Cyprus was invaded and ethnically cleansed by islam?

[balk]

BRASS BALLS!!

[balk]

"Media travelling with the prime minister have been bumped to commercial flights for their return home to Canada."

Best line in the article.

[fanfan]

I love this man!

[wideawake]

Cyprus was ethnically cleansed by secular Turkish nationalists. It's only recently that Islamic radicalism has become a phenomenon on Cyprus.

[proud_yank]

Beat me to it!

Better if he made them swim back, but...

[mystery-ak]

Gee....why hasn't Bush sent AF1 to pick up US citizens?...

[2banana]

Cyprus was ethnically cleansed by secular Turkish nationalists. It's only recently that Islamic radicalism has become a phenomenon on Cyprus.

I am sure the Christians murdered and displaced and the chruches destroyed will appreciate the difference...

[areafiftyone]

Wow!!!

[wideawake]

I am sure the Christians murdered and displaced and the chruches destroyed will appreciate the difference...

The facts are the facts.

The Cypriot wars were wars between secular Greek nationalists and invading secular Turkish nationalists.

Hezbollah and the Republican People's Party are two very different entities who fight with different tactics and with different goals.

Conflating differnt historical phenomena to score a rhetorical point may be convenient, but it isn't all that useful.

[conservative in nyc]

Prime Minister Harper gets to ditch the hated Ottawa press corps while doing some good for Canadians. And his actual presence is Cyprus should blunt the stupid "it's too slow - quagmire!" argument.

Very smart move by Mr. Harper. There must be a bunch of mediots sulking because they need to find their own way home.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"Very smart move by Mr. Harper. There must be a bunch of mediots sulking because they need to find their own way home."

A lot of "smart" people thought that Harper was making a huge mistake by refusing to pander to the Ottawa press gallery. He's been traveling outside of Ottawa to make major policy announcements -- thus giving lowly regional reporters a crack at the big time. The local reporters really seem to appreciate this. While they are careful to be as critical as possible (they are "reporters" above all) -- they also provide a lot more coverage of Harper's actual message.

Maybe Bush, and other world leaders should take note: stop pandering to reporters.

[balch3]

This is another MSM attempt to make the President look bad. While the US rescue effort is "bogged down," they point to other countries that are "pulling out all the stops." Typical of their ilk.

[The Blitherer]

Boy, Harper is really sticking it to the press, isn't he? This is great!

[conservative in nyc]

Boy, Harper is really sticking it to the press, isn't he?

And when they (predictably) whine about it, the Ottawa Press Gallery looks like the bunch of crybabies that they are.

[GAB-1955]

No. It's not ironic. The Turks were secular when they slapped the Cypriot Greeks down for trying an Anschluss with Greece after a coup.

[Candor7]

Harper has a considerable amount of savy and intestinal fortitude.

Imagine a liberal socialist Canadian Press forced to print pictures of Harper disembarking with 120 evacuees!

The election can't be too far off.

Conservative Majority assured.

[fanfan]

Imagine a liberal socialist Canadian Press forced to print pictures of Harper disembarking with 120 evacuees!

You made me smile!