The campaign plane can be a challenge for the crews who fly them.

For reporters, a campaign's 18-hour days with their stress-filled deadlines means that the long plane rides between stops are often the only opportunity to relax and let off steam.

The crew on the Liberal plane, an Air Inuit team on their first election campaign, had never seen anything like it.

And while the crews on the other tours have been greeting reporters with drinks and snacks and smiling indulgently at people who continue to stand and mingle in the aisle ways while meals are being served, the Liberal crew have been a tad uptight.

Until today.

Reporters boarded the flight home to Ottawa from Vancouver to find snacks and their preferred beverages on their trays. The crew also threw in a pack of Air Inuit playing cards.

We broke them in, said one of the more party-happy reporters on the plane.

—Sue Bonner