OTTAWA—The prime minister’s $50,000 airplane makeover has hit turbulence as opposition MPs slam the eye-catching design as a flying billboard for the Conservatives.

When RCAF 01, a Polaris CC-150 jet, emerged from the paint hangar last month, its drab gunmetal grey look had been replaced with a bright red, white and blue design.

But in the eyes of the opposition it’s a little too much “Conservative” blue. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accused the Tories of blurring the lines between government business and partisan interests.

“The colours of the plane, the whole detailing, are clearly patterned on the Conservative party,” he said Friday.

“I can tell you this: that when we form government in 2015 we will not be painting that plane orange,” Mulcair said, referring to the NDP’s colour. “It’s an airplane of the government, not an airplane of the party.”

Liberal MP John McCallum, a former defence minister, said the bright paint job has undermined the jet’s primary duty as a military transport to shuttle troops. That can include flights into global hot spots, where the bright markings could make it an easy target.

“I did not think the government could come up with one action that would waste money, hurt the Canadian Forces and inflate the prime minister’s ego all at once,” McCallum said.

“The new Conservative blue paint job on the prime minister’s plane means the Canadian Forces can no longer use it for military operations,” McCallum said in the Commons Friday.

NDP MP Pat Martin took aim at the price tag for the paint job, which cost $50,000 more than a plain grey paint job.

“I wonder how it feels for grassroots Conservative MPs to be forced to defend using tax dollars to play Pimp My Ride with the prime minister’s flying Taj Mahal,” Martin said in question period.

Conservatives defended the makeover, saying it was done as part of the jet’s “heavy” maintenance that happens regularly every six years.

“This repainting had to be part of the routine maintenance. It is a small proportion of the overall cost. And it is done with a view to promoting Canada, promoting Canada’s interest abroad,” said Chris Alexander, parliamentary secretary to the defence minister.

The military said the design was done in-house by a graphic artist in the air force.

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Paloma Aguilar, spokesperson for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, said the cost of the paint job was “modest.” The expected retirement of several Challenger aircraft will save “millions of dollars.”

In addition to flying the prime minister, the aircraft is used on occasion to transport the Governor General, members of the Royal Family and other dignitaries.

Harper gets to show off his jet next week when he takes it across the Atlantic for visits to London, Paris and Dublin.

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