In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, a Conservative government killed what was potentially the best fighter in the world (and destroyed Canada's aircraft industry). At that time, we needed such a plane. Today, they want to spend $9 billion+ on an untendered plane contract for a plane we don't need. There is no conventional war on the horizon (no, Afghanistan is not a conventional war, it's a guerrilla war). You don't need fighters for that, you need all sorts of other planes - transport planes, helicopters, reconnaissance drones, etc.
So, in 1959 we had the Conservative Avro Arrow affair, 20 years ago we had the Conservative Airbus affair, and today, the Lockheed Martin affair?
What happened to the military base in the North we were promised by Harper? What happened to the ice-breaking warships we were promised by Harper to protect our northern sovereignty? If we don't have a country on the ground, why do we need new American fighter planes in the air?
No comments:
Post a Comment