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Prime Minister Stephen Harper, accompanied by his wife Laureen, waves as they leave for the APEC summit in Singapore from Ottawa's international airport on Thursday, November 12, 2009.

Thursday, November 12, 2009 6:31 PM

Winging it with Stephen Harper

John Ibbitson

Elmendorf, Alaska Compared to the rigours of commercial air travel - -at least economy class (and journalists know no other) -- flight CF001 is quite pleasant. That's the flight number of the Polaris CC 150 that ferries Canada's prime minister across the country and around the globe, and it is currently winging Stephen Harper to Singapore for this year's APEC summit of leaders of states on the Pacific Rim.

Air Force One it ain't -- the aging military craft (an Airbus 310 is its civilian equivalent) -- is spartan of decor and narrow of leg room. But the sandwiches are fresh, the staff attentive and the drinks free. (Though it costs reporters --or, we hope, their news organizations -- $7,000 for a seat.)

Envy us not, frustrated globetrotters. Ottawa to Tokyo takes 27 hours, including refueling stops at this airbase outside Anchorage, and in Tokyo. We arrive in Singapore at 1 a.m. Saturday local time; it will take a couple of more hours to get through customs and to our hotel, and the Prime Minister's first event is at noon.

From there the itinerary is non-stop until we leave for a three-day trip to India, with a schedule so crowded it has seasoned journos shaking their heads.

Mr. Harper returns to Canada with the rest of us in tow Nov. 19, a week after he left. We refuel in Croatia going back, so this trip will circumnavigate the globe. If past experience is any guide, no one will be speaking to anyone by the time we touch down at Uplands. But we'll all be pals again by next time.

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Ottawa Notebook Contributors

Jane Taber, senior political writer

Jane Taber

Jane Taber has been on Parliament Hill since the Mulroney days, first writing for the Ottawa Citizen in 1986. Since then, she's reported for a small television network, WTN, and for the National Post before joining The Globe’s parliamentary bureau in 2002. She is the senior political writer and also co-host of Question Period, which airs Sundays on CTV.

 
John Ibbitson

John Ibbitson

John Ibbitson started at The Globe in 1999 and has been Queen's Park columnist and Ottawa political affairs correspondent. Most recently, he was a correspondent and columnist in Washington, where he wrote Open and Shut: Why America has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper. He returned to Ottawa as bureau chief in 2009. Before joining The Globe, he worked as a reporter, columnist and Queen’s Park correspondent for Southam papers.

 

Steven Chase

Steven Chase has covered federal politics in Ottawa for The Globe since mid-2001. He's previously worked in the paper's Vancouver and Calgary bureaus. Prior to that, he reported on Alberta politics for the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and on national issues for Alberta Report. He's had ink-stained hands for far longer though, having worked as a paperboy for the (now defunct) Montreal Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Sun and the North Shore News.

 
Deputy Ottawa bureau chief Campbell Clark

Campbell Clark

Campbell Clark has been a political writer in The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau since 2000. Before that he worked for The Montreal Gazette and the National Post. He writes about Canadian politics and foreign policy. He stopped being fascinated by ShamWow commercials after that guy’s nasty incident in Florida, but still wonders if one can really pull a truck with that Mighty Putty stuff.

 

Bill Curry

A member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1999, Bill Curry worked for The Hill Times and the National Post prior to joining The Globe in Feb. 2005. Originally from North Bay, Ont., Bill reports on a wide range of topics on Parliament Hill. He is very protective of the office’s brand new copy of O’Brien & Bosc, the latest Parliamentary rule book.

 

Gloria Galloway

Gloria Galloway has been a journalist for almost 30 years. She worked at the Windsor Star, the Hamilton Spectator, the National Post, the Canadian Press and a number of small newspapers before being hired by The Globe and Mail as deputy national editor in 2001. Gloria returned to reporting two years later and joined the Ottawa bureau in 2004. She has covered every federal election since 1997 and has done several stints in Afghanistan.

 

Daniel Leblanc

Daniel Leblanc studied political science at the University of Ottawa and journalism at Carleton University. He became a full-time reporter in 1998, first at the Ottawa Citizen and then in the Ottawa bureau of The Globe and Mail. While he likes the occasional brown envelope, he is also open to anonymous emails.

 

Stephen Wicary

Stephen Wicary has been with The Globe since 2001, working on the news desk as a copy editor, page designer, production editor and front page editor. During the U.S invasion of Iraq, he pulled a three-month stint as overnight editor of the website. He moved to the parliamentary bureau at the end of 2008 to bolster online political coverage.