Ezra Levant’s “Harper Airport” proposal sparks petition war
A petition by Ezra Levant, the controversial conservative politician and right wing media personality, demanding that the Calgary International Airport be named after outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper has prompted a similar proposal to name a landfill after the former Conservative party leader.
“Toronto’s main airport is named after a Liberal Prime Minister, Lester Pearson,” Levant wrote on a petition page on his The Rebel dedicated to the cause. “Montreal’s main airport is named a Liberal Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. And Saskatoon’s airport is named after Conservative Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker.”
“Calgary’s airport is the third busiest airport in Canada — but it doesn’t have a name,” the former Sun News Network who has lost a number of defamation suites wrote. “It’s called the Calgary International Airport or YYC, its letter name.”
“So why not rename it the Stephen Harper International Airport?,” Levant asked.
Levant spent $150,000 to win the Canada Alliance Party nomination for the Calgary West by-election in 2002 but stepped aside to allow Harper, who had just won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance party following Preston Manning’s retirement from that post, to contest and enter parliament.
Meanwhile, opponents of Stephen Harper have created a petition of their own to counter Levant’s one, demanding the City of Calgary to rename the East Calgary Landfill as the Stephen J. Harper Landfill.
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s legacy of trashy politics, garbage policies and wasteful corruption makes this an excellent way to remember him,” Craig Hopkins“Canada dumped him as PM and now you could dump your junk in the Harper Landfill”
“The Harper decade is surely a lost decade,” petition signatory Alan Park wrote.“While this landfill might be a too flattering a reflection of Harper’s legacy, it’s close enough. have to offer at this time.”
“Wouldn’t it be great, to throw all the anxiety, fear and insecurity that Harper roused amongst Canadians into a ready landfill,” Kayt Lucas, another signatory, wrote.“Maybe something lovely would grow from that great pile of human suffering.”