VICTORIA — Opposition leader John Horgan waded into question period Tuesday, confident that he had a winning issue in Premier Christy Clark’s apparent preference for travelling by chartered jet with a full-blown entourage on board.

“I appreciate that the premier has a busy schedule,” said the New Democrat. “That was certainly the first line of defence of the indefensible — half a million dollars in private jet flights back and forth to places in British Columbia and around Canada.”

But commercial flights travel many of the same routes. Why the reliance on private, chartered jets?

Appearing in the house for the first time since the story broke, Clark adopted a deliberately low-key approach. These were tax dollars after all.

“My staff work as hard as they can to make sure that we find the most cost-efficient ways to travel around the province,” the premier told the house. “And the numbers, in terms of the amounts that have been charged in my office for me, are very consistent — about the same as or a little less, in many cases, than previous premiers, including previous premier Glen Clark.”

The reference to the NDP premier Clark evidenced a belated research effort by government staff. The Liberals paid little attention when journalist Bob Mackin broke the story in the online Tyee Thursday.

But when other news organizations reported on what the New Democrats were calling “Air Christy,” the government scrambled to document the extensive billings for travel by Opposition MLAs and their staff.

Clark had all that research at her fingertips in the house Tuesday, something Horgan may well have realized as he proceeded into a followup question.

“If we’re not going to talk about the excessive use of the jets, how about the people that are travelling with the premier? And I can understand the premier would need a press secretary. I travel with a press secretary … .”

Jeers from the government side over Horgan’s disclosure that he, too, needs to travel with at least a one-person entourage at public expense.

He pressed on, challenging the premier’s decision to travel with a camera-toting, online-broadcasting videographer. What possible value was that to taxpayers?

Later Clark would tell reporters that she “often” travels with a videographer, the better to inform the public via social media about events like the climate summit in Paris last fall, where B.C.’s exemplary carbon tax was discussed as a model.

But when Horgan challenged the need for the videographer on the Paris trip, he provided Clark with an opening to change the subject on the fly.

“I don’t know if the leader of the Opposition is positing an argument for him to have attended,” she fired back. “I didn’t invite him because he and his entire caucus opposed the carbon tax.”

A vow to “axe” the carbon tax was indeed a centrepiece of the NDP campaign in the 2009 election. Though the party has since disavowed what proved to be a losing proposition, the stance is a matter of record.

Still, Clark’s shot had New Democrats seething, Horgan most of all. “Keep smiling and make it up,” he heckled. “You weren’t even here — go ahead, line one,” the latter being a reference to how in 2009 Clark was hosting an open line show on radio station CKNW.