Stephen Harper’s Indian motorcade includes at least two Canadian-shipped armoured cars

Stephen Harper is in India this week, for a six day mission aimed to boost trade relations with the burgeoning south Asian economy.

A funny thing though: he's travelling through the country — thousands of miles away —in a car with Ontario license plates.

According to the Globe and Mail, the RCMP has gone with the "extraordinary security provision" to fly at least two armour-clad cars to India from Canada specifically for this trip.

"Canadian sources say...that Indians were only offering a 1960s-era Ambassador car for Mr. Harper," notes the article.

"The fact Canada went to the cost and trouble of freighting over special cars for Mr. Harper's security suggests Ottawa felt the Indian government wasn't offering adequate vehicles to protect its Canadian guest."

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The Globe adds that the prime minister's office wouldn't discuss the cost of shipping the cars to India, saying that the RCMP is responsible for the Prime Minister's security.

A security expert told the Toronto Star that he recalls the RCMP shipping cars to Trinidad and Tobago for Harper's visit in 2009 because there were no other vehicles available. The un-named source said that, in this case however, there is probably a "significant threat level."

"That's a pretty expensive run so there would have to be some serious justification for taking them," he said noting that India's security arrangements for the 2010 Commonwealth Games were less than stellar and caused Canadian officials some concern.

While some may quibble about the cost of shipping cars to India, the National Citizens Coalition's Stephen Taylor hopes this story doesn't become politicized.

"It's usually a perennial sport in Ottawa among Harper critics to bemoan the PM security detail. Suddenly left-wing ideologues are concerned about costs," he wrote in his blog.

"The security of the Prime Minister of Canada should be important to all Canadians despite their political stripe. Even if you didn't vote for Harper or his government, an attack on the Prime Minister is an attack on the outcome of our democratic selection and the sovereignty we exercise in that process."

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It's hard to argue with that.