Chretien and Ignatieff: "Stupid and Stupider"

Time to send Ujjal Dosanjh and Michael Ignatieff on a short flight..


So, Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal Defence Critic, is all up in arms over the Harper government decision to proceed with the purchase of F-35 fighter jets to replace the aging CF-18 fleet.

Really?

They are angry that the contract was not put out to tender.

You don't say?

Some history on this issue is now in order, to fully understand that the safety of our military and our citizens, and how fiscal responsibility take  complete backseat to Liberal effort to do whatever it takes to seek power - including a willingness to show themselves as being complete hypocrites.

So - let's go back in time, shall we?

In 1963 the Canadian military and coast guard began use of the Sea King helicopter.  As one might suspect, by the late 1980's, they needed to be replaced, and as a result, after a review of three primary tenders, the Canadian government under Brian Mulroney entered into contracts to replace the Sea Kings with the EH-101.

Going into the 1993 Election, Jean Chretien, perhaps the greasiest Prime Minister in Canadian history, laughingly criticized the purchase, and after being elected, cancelled the contract outright.

Well.

As a result, the Canadian taxpayers were saddled with a $500,000,000.00 bill for breaching the contract, and we were left with a bunch of aged, dying helicopters.

The further result?

Per Wikipedia:

By the mid 1990s each Sea King required over 30 man-hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time, a figure described by the Canadian Naval Officers Association as 'grossly disproportionate'.[15] Furthermore, the helicopters are unavailable for operations 40% of the time and due to the fact that the airframes are 10–15 years older than other Sea Kings flying in allied air forces, AIRCOM is frequently forced to have spare parts custom-made as Sikorsky's supplies are either overly expensive or no longer in production. AIRCOM's Sea Kings are now widely perceived as unreliable, outdated and expensive to maintain, by observers both inside and outside the Canadian Forces. On February 27, 2003, when HMCS Iroquois was deploying to the Arabian Sea, a Sea King crashed within moments of takeoff, and the picture of the helicopter lying on its side on the destroyer's landing pad was embarrassing.[16]. Late that year, the entire fleet was grounded (except for essential operations) for several weeks after two aircraft coincidentally lost power within a few days of each other.

So.  What was Jean Chretien to do?  Well, obviously, he had to replace the helicopters, which he did, however, the clear front-runner in the competition was the EH-101, which obviously, Chretien couldn't purchase for political reasons, and so his government stalled in dealing with the matter until finally deciding upon a replacement in 2004, the CH-148.

Unfortunately, for our armed forces, this Liberal decision was, as one might expect, seriously flawed, and the contract still, as of this date, has not been fulfilled, with the CH-148's not being delivered now until June of 2012 - the Canadian forces making do with interim replacements from the manufacturer until then.

Did we save money?

Nope.  In the end, we're paying more for fewer helicopters.  Well done Liberal Party of Canada.

Now.

Fast forward to now.

Jean Chretien (remember him?) enters into a Joint Strike Fighter program with the U.S. and numerous other allies - ostensibly, to save money through the joint development of a strike fighter jet program with our allies - and to also assure operational compatibility with our allies.

Seemed like a good idea in 2002 when we started paying hundreds of millions of dollars towards the joint project, confirmed in February of 2002 when Liberal Defence Minister Art Eggleton signed on the deal with U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Of course, that was then.

Now - as we continue to proceed with that project, and as Stephen Harper announces the acquisition of the replacement F-35's, Liberals demand that we avoid the contract and start over again with the tender and development process.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

As reported in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, current Liberal rancor over the decision of the government to replace the aging CF-18 Jets with the F-35 are "a bit disingenuous". 

As also point out in the Star Phoenix article, "by all accounts, Canadian companies have already benefited from the arrangement, having received $350 million in contracts from Canada's investment so far of $160 million in the project. This even though the first of the state-of-the-art fighters won't come off the assembly line for another couple of years, and Canada won't take possession of one until late this decade."

How are we doing with the CF-18's?

14 August 1996: Aircraft crashes on takeoff from Iqaluit, Northwest Territories. Pilot safely ejects.


26 May 2003: CF-18 crashes on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range during the annual international training exercise MAPLE FLAG; pilot (Captain Kevin Naismith) killed.


19 June 2004: Aircraft from CFB Cold Lake lost when it was unable to stop while at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Aircraft was salvaged and is back in service. Pilot ejected but was injured.


16 August 2005: Aircraft crashes during a training exercise near CFB Bagotville. Pilot safely ejects.


23 July 2010: A CF-18 (#188738) crashed while practicing an airshow routine at the Lethbridge County Airport. The pilot, Captain Brian Bews safely ejected.

So.

We need a replacement.

We have a good product that many of our allies have committed to acquiring, and which the Liberal government under Jean Chretien paid significant money to help develop - but which, now, Michael Ignatieff threatens to scuttle if he is elected.

Yeah, you read right.  Not having learned from the monumental example of rank stupidity and the worst of partisan game-playing with the Sea King debacle - now Jean Chretien's "heir apparent", Michael Ignatieff, is going to do the same thing again.

If we give him the chance.