Jul 21, 2022
By Christine Ross
The perceived frontrunner in the federal conservative leadership race is advocating for jets to fly in and out of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport on the waterfront.
Pierre Poilievre says with current delays and backlogs at Pearson airport, why wouldn’t Billy Bishop be allowed to expand to alleviate some of that stress.
“The runway here is not long enough to accommodate jets, if you extend the runway by 200 or 300 metres then we can bring Canadian made Bombardier jets right to the heart of Canada’s biggest business district and we can have flights that go long distances, more choice, more freedom of opportunity for our customers and our workers,” said Poilievre speaking at the waterfront airport.
Former Toronto Mayor David Crombie, still active with waterfront projects, had a message for Poilievre when speaking on Fight Back with Libby Znaimer on Zoomer Radio.
“Get out of here,” said Crombie on the idea to expand the waterfront airport to international size. “If you expand the airport for runways, you’ll have a wonderful airport but the problem is you won’t have a waterfront that you can live on and we’re out there building houses for tens of thousands of people.”
It’s a proposal that’s come up many times in the past and has never been successful. The push years ago by Porter Airlines to allow jets at Billy Bishop faced fierce opposition, primarily from waterfront resident organizations.
The proposal was killed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in 2015.
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