Toronto – Premier Dalton McGuinty did not arrange for a plane he was on to get in trouble and plunge frighteningly 20,000 ft. toward ground, but it could still do wonders for his image.
The Liberal premier was returning with five of his staff from selling high technology in California when the Air Canada jet they and 130 others were on suddenly lost cabin pressure because a seal burst and had to dive quickly and steeply to 10,000 ft., so they could breathe again.
Some passengers ignored warnings and stood and fell, others vomited as the plane twisted and turned, and some in McGuinty’s group said they feared for their lives
But the premier sat calmly, posed with the flight crew for pictures and assured TV watchers it was an adventure and “all’s well that ends well.”
This could help McGuinty, because voters like their premiers, who have always been men, showing a dash of fortitude and backbone when the need arises.
William Davis, when Progressive Conservative premier, was on a plane hit by lightning over northern Ontario during an election in the 1970s.
Those on board, including this reporter, felt severe turbulence and saw the lightning, but did not know it had been hit until after the plane landed, and Davis said he did not feel in danger. But this picture of a politician who risked his life to take his message to the public probably helped him with some voters.
Premiers liked to show they were tough, often through sports. Davis and his Conservative predecessor, John Robarts, played football for their universities and their staffs were not above reminding news media. Davis often reminded further by betting with reporters on football matches.
Robarts provided the most notable serious example of fortitude, when he became ill at home in London and was so weak he could not fasten his tie, and a doctor ordered an ambulance to take him to hospital.
Robarts refused to get in it and went by car with the ambulance following, and was diagnosed as suffering from severe hiatus hernia and spent three weeks in hospital.
Mike Harris was known as a hard driver in golf, not as bruising a game as football, but had been a professional and pictures of him playing, muscular in a sports shirt and with a cigar clenched between his lips, showed him very much a man’s man.
Harris’s reputation for being tough, however, was based more on his standing up to hostile demonstrations against his cuts in public services, in one of which even his wife was jostled. Harris seemed to relish them and claimed they never forced him to change a policy and many admired him for it.
McGuinty often is called a policy wonk, interested most in social issues and not known for any sports in which he could display his grit. He derided Harris's passion for golf by saying "the only deadline he ever keeps is his tee-off time," although, as premier, he plays golf to raise money to fight elections. McGuinty has said he writes poetry to his wife, Terri, to while away long nights when he is on road, politicking.
The Liberals in recent elections got more votes from women than the Conservatives, but this probably was because of their focus on social policies, while the Conservatives have been tighter with money and seen as harsher. McGuinty, slim to the point of looking fragile, has an image as tender and gentle. Women would probably like to mother him. He has not been seen as a man of action.
Voters will not flock to McGuinty because he kept his head on a plane, but some may feel he is the kind of steady, unflappable leader – to parody the U.S. presidential election – they would want to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s Park press gallery.
