Jersey Girl also the Charter Chick?

Jobs and families. Premier Christy Clark's two favourite words. One thing is certain, she has given the powerful McLean family the job of flying her entourage.

I learned that Clark flew on eight trips during her first six months in office on Blackcomb Aviation, which is co-owned by the McLean Group. See my story here. The invoices and itineraries are below.

Premier Christy Clark's charters on a Liberal-friendly airline

Patriarch David McLean led the privatization of CN Rail and became its chairman in 1994. He is also a prominent B.C. Liberal Party fundraiser and donor. His Elections BC record shows he donated $209,707.50 since 2005. McLean was one of many supporters of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid. As owner of The Landing in Gastown, he was landlord of ICBC which sublet space to the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation. BidCorp. morphed into VANOC, expanded and moved into a city-owned complex in East Vancouver. (The Landing is where post-Olympic VANOC moved-in with the Twentyten Group, a marketing firm that also manages VANOC CEO John Furlong's speaking engagements.)

Premier Gordon Campbell had promised not to sell the people's railway. CN Rail bought BC Rail operations for $1 billion in 2003 in a suspect tendering process. Competing bidder Canadian Pacific Railway withdrew, calling the process unfair.

Son Sacha McLean is Blackcomb Aviation's CEO and donated use of the company's jets to Clark during her leadership campaign in early 2011, a fact initially reported by Sean Holman. McLean's other son Jason was an aide to Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien from 2000-2002, is a member of the Vancouver Police Board and became president of the Vancouver Board of Trade in 2010.

David McLean was expected to be among the witnesses called to testify in the B.C. Supreme Court corruption trial of Dave Basi and Bob Virk. The former B.C. Liberal ministerial assistants copped a plea bargain on Oct. 18, 2010 and the trial abruptly ended. Taxpayers were saddled with their $6 million legal bill, despite being convicted.

With a reliance on the McLean Group, why would Clark want to risk embarrassing political friends by ordering an inquiry into the sale of BC Rail? She has not changed her stance since the leadership campaign. An inquiry, to restore the integrity of government, is something that both Bill Tieleman and Alex Tsakumis wish would happen.