Harper’s travel marathon gets underway with trip to China

Canada PM Stephen Harper. Photo courtesy of Harper’s official Facebook page.

OTTAWA — Air miles, anyone?

Stephen Harper is about to launch into a travel adventure that’ll see the prime minister and his entourage travel more than 50,000 kilometres in less than two weeks.

Harper departs today for China, where he will meet with government and business leaders, and attend the opening of the Asia Pacific Economic Summit.

He’ll be at the APEC meeting just long enough for some quick handshakes before he ducks out the door and back to Canada for Remembrance Day ceremonies on Tuesday.

Once the events of Nov. 11 are complete, Harper jumps back onto his re-fuelled plane and heads for New Zealand, to be followed by a trip to Australia for a G20 meeting.

Closer to the ground, here are some other events expected to take shape today in Ottawa:

— To reinforce a human rights message with the prime minister bound for China, parliamentarians will renew the call on that country’s government to release pro-democracy activist Dr. Wang Bingzhang;

— NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will rekindle the not-so-burning Ring of Fire chromite mining and smelting development project in northern Ontario before heading to a meeting of his party’s caucus;

— And Imagine Canada chief economist Brian Emmett will discuss the evolving role of charities in Canada’s economy.