The BMW of photo ops

This morning, a group of young men in suits began unloading the trunk of a BMW outside the Confederation Building.

In the trunk were 46,000 signatures on white 8-by-11 paper, calling for the end of prisoners getting old age security.

Kevin Gaudet, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,
presented the petitions to Human Resources Minister Diane Finley on the front steps.

BMWs have a certain cachet of new wealth and privilege in Canada, even though the one used this morning was an elderly 3 Series built in the 1990s.
 
Can you imagine what the Canadian Taxpayers Federation would say if an opposition party or non-governmental organization used a BMW in their photo op?

UPDATE: Kevin Gaudet emailed me about the car, which he says belongs to his research director.

"It is a 1997 BMW that he rescued from a salvage yard for $500 and rebuilt himself," he wrote. "The engine has over 250,000 kms on it. I would have thought you would have been pleased with the environmental benefits. We figured our CTF supporters would prefer us to use that vehicle instead of incurring the expense of renting some trendy hybrid at much greater cost."