Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Prime Minister on his way to APEC summit in Singapore
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is en route to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders' summit.
The prime minister's aging military Airbus 320 was refuelling in Alaska Thursday evening, the first of two such fuel stops on a 26-hour voyage.
Harper will be on the ground in Singapore for only about 36 hours before departing for India, where he plans a more extensive tour that will take him to Mumbai, New Delhi and Amritsar.
Harper and the Canadian delegation is flying to southeast Asia aboard an aircraft once dubbed a "flying Taj Mahal" by former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien in the early 1990s.
The gun-metal grey Airbus, which dates from the 1980s and the fleet of defunct WardAir, still has ashtrays in its armrests.
Due to its airspeed and refuelling requirements, the jet takes almost twice as long to circumnavigate the globe as bigger, more modern aircraft.
