OTTAWA - Canadian politicians are in a stratosphere of their own when it comes to frequent flying.
They zip across the skies weekly, from constituency to Parliament Hill and back again. If you're a minister -- or the prime minister -- add to that an endless schedule of announcements and events across an immense country and overseas.
The debate on the carbon footprint of flying is still in its infancy in the Canadian government and among politicians, but it's been growing internationally.
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases and is predicted in one study by the British government to reach 17 per cent of all man-made emissions by 2050. And research has suggested the way in which airplanes cough out their gases, at those high altitudes, makes them even more noxious to the planet.
Britain's Royal Family have made pointed efforts to address the issue -- the Queen recently announced she would pay into a carbon offset program to cover off the environmental costs of a trip to the United States.
Offsets are programs that allow polluters to buy into projects that are helping to clean the atmosphere.
Prince Charles recently called off an annual ski trip to Switzerland as a public gesture of his intention to reduce his so-called carbon footprint. And senior members of the British government buy offsets to try and cancel out the number of flights they take.
In Canada, the idea of reducing the impact of air travel has had a few high-profile adherents.
Environmentalist David Suzuki recently said he was going to cut down on the number of speaking engagements he had that required flights, and begin grouping appearances in smaller areas. Singer Sarah Harmer in 2005 paid for offsets for her tour, and said this week she had considered giving up international touring altogether.
In sharp contrast was the government's major climate change plan last month.
At least two dozen officials from the Prime Minister's Office, Environment Canada and political assistants of various other cabinet ministers flew to Toronto to help with Environment Minister John Baird's announcement to a group of journalists.
The vast majority of reporters also flew in from Ottawa, to sit in a plain room at a Toronto waterfront entertainment centre.
When asked if the carbon footprint of the exercise had been calculated, an aide to Baird said it had not.
Baird himself said Thursday he buys into a renewable energy program through Bullfrog Power to offset his personal flights, but had not considered the impact of his government flights -- although he maintains the Conservative government travels less than the previous Liberal government.
Indeed, such accounting might soon become de rigeur.
Planning the next election
Britain's The Independent newspaper last fall printed a critical report that estimated senior government officials emitted 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions on jaunts in and out of the country.
All federal party leaders said they plan to reduce their carbon footprint in the next election.
Election campaigns are the most fuel-guzzling of all political activities as politicians try to touch down in as many spots as possible, sometimes crossing the country in a single day.
The Pembina Institute estimates that a 10-hour round trip on a plane emits about one-10th of a tonne of greenhouse gases, while a Canadian's average annual output is 5 tonnes.
A government official said Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are considering ways to reduce their carbon footprint but could not reveal specific plans.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May last week announced that she would take the train as much as possible during the next federal election campaign to reduce her emissions.
Trains put out roughly half the carbon dioxide of airplanes and work with the party's platform policy of increasing passenger rail service.
"Political parties have gotten thesmelves trapped into this idea that they look more dazzling to the citizenry if in one minute they're in Vancouver and the other minute they're in Halifax,'' May said.
"The Canadian public is more sophisticated than that. The news media is able to travel and cover the politicians where they are.
"It strikes me that we have a mania for air travel and we need to send out the mesage that we're going to have to cut down.''
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said his party paid into offsets during the last federal election campaign and would continue to do so.
A spokesman for Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he has been trying to drive his hybrid car to more events, and will pay into an offset program for the next federal election.
The NDP's Jack Layton said he and his wife Olivia Chow, also an MP, have been taking the train between Ottawa and their home ridings in Toronto as much as possible, and riding bicycles in each city. The party is actively studying how it could shrink its carbon footprint in the next election campaign.
"It's always important to look at reducing your emissions first, and then look at some of the offsets,'' Layton said.
Environmentalists say the only real way to reduce the impact of flying is to reduce the growth of the airline industry, which has made travel increasingly cheap and easy.
The European Union has talked about including the industry in its larger plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its carbon trading system, which means the cost of polluting will eventually be included in the cost of a ticket.
"It's hard to convince people without any sort of economic incentive not to fly,'' said Paul Lingl of the David Suzuki Foundation. "When it's built into the price it will be much easier to send the message to people that this is damaging activity and there are other alternatives.''
