Drake criticized for repeated private jet flights between Hamilton and Toronto
Death, taxes and painstakingly slow traffic on the highway between Hamilton and Toronto that makes ants look fast.
It's a trifecta true in life for any person living in the Golden Horseshoe.
Unless, of course, you're a multimillionaire artist with a private jet and a helluva lot of fuel to burn.
Canadian rapper Drake is drawing the turbulent ire of climate activists after it was revealed he took his plane from Toronto to Hamilton on a flight that lasted just 14 minutes Friday.
The 35-year-old's breezy air travel was captured by an automated Twitter account, CelebJets, which tracks celebrity flights based on transponders and tail fin markings. He enjoyed the roughly 70-kilometre jaunt - which takes about an hour by car, depending on traffic - aboard his private, light-blue coated Boeing 767, worth about $185 million.
Last summer, Drake partnered with climate group Aspiration, which promised to help him reduce and offset his carbon footprint by auditing his schedule, events and travel.
But that hasn't stopped the global star from engaging in one what one climate activist likened to unnecessary joy rides."
Drake took his plane from Hamilton to Toronto on an 18-minute flight July 12. He made the same trip on a 14-minute flight June 28, and again on a 16-minute flight June 17. According to CelebJets, each of the flights emitted about five tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
It's extremely wasteful," said Ian Borsuk, climate campaign co-ordinator for Environment Hamilton. As a single person, he's probably emitting more on one flight than most people who make that drive emit in a month or even a year."
Exuberant, costly and damaging - but not uncommon.
Drake is just one of dozens of celebrities who are now coming under fire for their jet-setting tendencies.
In the past month, according to CelebJets, socialite and businessperson Kylie Jenner was in the air for a mere 17 minutes between Van Nuys in Los Angeles and the nearby town of Camarillo; country singer Kenny Chesney flew from Akron, Ohio, to Pittsburgh in 20 minutes; director Steven Spielberg took a 24-minute flight from Teterboro, New Jersey, to the Hamptons in New York; and boxer Floyd Mayweather took a 14-minute flight from Las Vegas to the nearby town of Henderson, only to return on the same jet two days later.
The brief journeys have been met with vitriol on social media, with many pointing to their passengers' inherent hypocrisy. Celebrities claim to be climate-friendly in the public light - but it's a different story behind closed doors, said Borsuk.
One flight can undo the effort of hundreds of thousands of people, and you have to ask: is the convenience of it really worth it?" he said.
There needs to be a real discussion among governments about whether we should be allowing these flights to happen in the first place, because it's pretty clear that if we leave people to their own devices when they have that much money, they will take advantage of it."
Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com