BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

Finally. After weeks of pretty much ignoring Canada's current DND procurement woes, a party leader have unequivocally stated their position on Canada's controversial purchase of the F-35 Lightning II. In a rally held in Halifax today, Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau stated, quite bluntly, that the Grits "will not buy the F-35 fighter jet". Instead, we will launch an open and transparent competition to replace the CF-18s; keeping in mind the primary mission of our fighter aircraft is the defense of North America.  This process will also ensure that bids include guaranteed industrial benefits for Canadian companies and workers.    Trudeau then emphasized that saving money on fighter jets would ensure that monies would not be taken away from shipbuilding in places like the Halifax shipyards. While this news was a long time coming, it is not entirely unexpected.  Kelowna Liberal candidate and former CF-18 pilot  Stephen Fuhr has been quite ...

Not yet, but soon, hopefully. Tempest.  Storm.  Whirlwind.  CYCLONE.  It would seem that Canada's newest helicopter was aptly named, not for the downwash of its propeller, but for the type of controversy it would cause. By now, many of you have heard that the CH-148 Cyclone is pretty much a " done deal ".  Despite a brief period of threatening to take their business elsewhere , the Canadian government announced that they would be going ahead with the troubled Cyclone purchase.  This was done as a late Friday afternoon "info dump", a practice that indicates that they want the announcement to attract the least amount of attention.  Despite this, criticism has been ramping up, questioning the choices made and the money spent in what former Defence Minister Peter MacKay called  "the worst procurement in the history of Canada". Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it, so let's look at some of the lessons (hopefully) ...