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| The Sea King first ordered in 1963 |
Canada has a small navy with no aircraft carriers. What it has are frigates with Sea King helicopters. In their day, these helicopters were state of the art but that was a very, very long time ago. Today, they are so beyond their functional life-span, they are a danger to any pilot who flies one. Two of the Sea Kings sit in Halifax in such poor shape; they are not certified to fly over water which is more than a little troubling considering they are Navy helicopters.
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| Former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney |
In the early 1990’s, the Conservative government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney entered into a contract to replace the Sea Kings with the EH-101, considered at that time to be the state of the art aircraft in its class.
In 1993, the new Liberal government under Prime Minister Jean Chretien, cancelled the EH-101 contract, calling it a “Cadillac” and “an unnecessary expense”. The Canadian taxpayer ended up paying almost a half billion dollars in cancellation fees which the Liberals didn’t feel was an unnecessary expense for the opportunity to give the Conservatives the middle finger wave.
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| The EH-101 ordered by the Conservative government, cancelled by the Liberal goverment |
In 1994, his government entered into a new helicopter procurement and settled on the Sikorsky. This was, thanks to inflation, less aircraft for more cost. The contract called for delivery of the helicopters by 2004. The Navy invested $80 million to keep the Sea Kings in the air with the exception of one, which fell out of the sky killing its crew.
Up to that point, it had cost taxpayers $1.3 billion not to take delivery of anything and to maintain its dangerously out of date helicopters.
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| Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien |
The year 2004 came and went without delivery of one of the new Sikorsky helicopters and the Liberal government now under Prime Minister Paul Martin who had stabbed his former leader in the back to force him to retire, did nothing other than dither and made excuses. Subsequently, in 2006, Mr. Martin’s Liberal government was defeated by the newly formed Conservative Party of Canada led by Stephen Harper.
Mr. Harper was given a minority government by a cautious electorate, which for my American friends means that his party was outnumbered by the opposition parties. This meant his government could be defeated and an election triggered on a vote of non-confidence by the opposition. The new CPC government also inherited the Liberal’s Sikorsky helicopter procurement contract.
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| Former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin |
It is now 2012, a full 18 years since the Liberals first inked a contract to purchase the Sikorsky helicopters and not one of them has been delivered. They have failed to pass air-worthy tests which one would think would be one of the key criteria for anything that flies and there is no firm commitment as to when these helicopters might actually start arriving. A member of the government admitted quite candidly that they had no idea but 'hoped' it would be "soon" or at the latest, "sooner". Isn't that just the kind of leadership we were looking for at election time?
Navy pilots and their ground crews continue to do whatever they can to keep the decrepit Sea Kings in some semblance of working order but they are running out of duct tape and bailing twine. The Sea Kings are dangerous and people’s lives are at risk while politicians continue to do the only thing they are really any good at…..point fingers at each other and try to score points on television.
After two decades, four prime ministers from two different political parties, $1.3 billion in cancellation and unnecessary maintenance fees and God knows how much for the current contract, not one helicopter has been delivered to replace the Sea Kings that were originally purchased in 1963, half a century ago.
Our political leadership like to think of this as effective government.
Our political leadership like to think of this as effective government.
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| The Sikorsy ordered in 1994 by the Liberal government. None have been received yet and the Liberals now blame the Conservative government |
It was a Liberal government that cancelled the original helicopter procurement and then entered into a new contract which they failed to make happen. That has not stopped the Liberals from blaming the Conservative government for this unbelievable fiasco and they do it with a straight face and an incredulous amount of sanctimony.
The Conservatives, for their part, stand with a deer-in-the-headlights look, sputtering excuses and pointing at the Liberals for the original contract. Sikorsky is 8 years over due in delivery and yet, the Conservatives have failed to exercise any kind of leadership on this file. They haven't even managed to exercise the contract's penalty clauses which require Sikorsky to pay for delayed delivery. Current estimates of those total penalties currently total close to $93 million but, like the helicopters, there hasn't been a nickle seen.
The Conservatives, for their part, stand with a deer-in-the-headlights look, sputtering excuses and pointing at the Liberals for the original contract. Sikorsky is 8 years over due in delivery and yet, the Conservatives have failed to exercise any kind of leadership on this file. They haven't even managed to exercise the contract's penalty clauses which require Sikorsky to pay for delayed delivery. Current estimates of those total penalties currently total close to $93 million but, like the helicopters, there hasn't been a nickle seen.
In the end, nothing gets done except more taxpayer money is squandered on political gamesmanship by politicians who along with their supporters are lost in a world of their own, a world where principles and integrity are sold cheaply.
The other day, I had a heated discussion with someone on Twitter who took part in the campaign against Stephen Harper conducted on July 1 on Twitter. I sent her a tweet asking if she was going to be equally critical of the other parties which unleashed a tirade of defensive hyperbole back that ended with a ridiculous statement.
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| Current Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper |
“We criticize the government of the day and when a new government comes; if it is no better then we will condemn them too.”
Well isn’t that just hunky dory. We don’t learn from our mistakes because we fail to acknowledge them. Too many people rail against the Conservatives based solely on a visceral emotional reaction and completely ignoring that it isn’t the Conservatives or the Liberals or the NDP that are responsible for the mess our government is in, it’s all of them. Instead of seeing the pattern of deceit and bad government that flows from one government to the next, they cling to the absurd idea that it is only the other guys who are the problem.
They are, quite simply, wrong! It isn’t the Conservatives or Stephen Harper, the Liberals of Jean Chretien, Paul Martin or The NDP or Thomas Mulcair, it’s all of them.
There is no difference from one party to the other, one politician to the other. They are all self-serving hypocrites who are incapable of providing the kind of cooperative leadership this country needs. It is no different in most other democracies where the left and the right divide into factions to bicker, accuse the opposite side while ignoring the same flaws on theirs. It is precisely what the backroom boys in the party war rooms count on. They divide us to conquer us and we follow along like mindless sheep.
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| How Canadians divide themselves rather than uniting as Canadians |
The lack of ethics, good governance and common sense is the DNA of political parties. Cynical politics, lies, half-truths and bipartisan pandering are how they operate. Even when the lives of Canadian naval pilots are at risk, these fools cannot come together to make something work for the good of the country or even just to ensure pilot safety.
The example I raised was the purchase of helicopters but you can substitute any issue you like. It’s all the same whether it is health care, the environment, the economy or ethics. We are led by liars and would be high flyers, who waste our money and undermine our democracies by encouraging a polarized lack of civility and unity.
It is a disgrace and the single greatest reason why our democracies are in such a mess. Our political system has been hijacked by self-serving politicians, their political parties and those who blindly support them. The greater disgrace is the number of people who continue to choose sides, using one set of standards to judge the other side but a kinder set of standards to judge the side they support.
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| How Americans divide themselves rather than uniting as Americans |
It has not served us very well over the past thirty years and it is impossible to see how this continuing polarization and finger pointing will do anything other than encourage politicians to continue to do what they do best which is…..nothing of value.
As long as we, the people, continue to delude ourselves that picking one side or the other rather than demanding greater accountability from all sides; as long as, we the people, polarize into left or right rather than stand together as Canadians, Americans or as the citizens of any other country demanding that politicians and their parties live up to our values and our standards, nothing will change.
It will only get worse. But then, I suppose it's easier to yell and scream and accuse in absurd Twitter campaigns than it is to actually think and take an objective stand for something worthwhile.
The woods in Oz are filled with "lions and tigers and bears, oh my" but our democracies aren't Oz. They are nations of citizens being mislead and lied to by politicians who pretend to be wizards but in the end have nothing behind the curtain except cheap tricks and illusions.....and that my friends is a very big, Oh my!
The woods in Oz are filled with "lions and tigers and bears, oh my" but our democracies aren't Oz. They are nations of citizens being mislead and lied to by politicians who pretend to be wizards but in the end have nothing behind the curtain except cheap tricks and illusions.....and that my friends is a very big, Oh my!
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You missed out the fact that the Cretin had to reverse and buy some of the cancelled EH-101s for search and rescue.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=99de5056-1d13-4d31-8ff7-6135b652cd40
You're right on both counts. He did have to buy some of the cancelled EH-101s and his excuse for reversing himself was that he is...well...a politician unfettered by things like principle and integrity.
DeleteYou were also right that I forgot that. My excuse is that I'm getting old and absent minded.
More here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Canadas-CH-148-Cyclones-Better-Late-Than-Never-05223/
Hiya Bear. This For Better or for Worse cartoon reminded me so much of your recent Air Canada experiences that I had to send it to you:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/6urg4
That pretty much says it all. Thanks for sharing it with me. :-)
DeleteP SHAREYOUR FRUSTRATION WITH THE
ReplyDeleteI share your frustration with the corrupt manner in which our national affairs have been managed. Defence procurement stands out as the best example of incompetence. But I fail to understand how the Conservative party can be blamed in any way. From submarines to heliocopters to fighter jets, the Liberals under Chretien and Martin showed absolute incompetence in supplying military equipment to our armed forces. In a short time the Conservatives have reversed the rot and deserve to be applauded for the steps they have taken.
Dont ever forget that Chretien sent our troops to Afghanistan without armor ,ordinance and basic equipment They were outfitted with jungle camouflage for God's sake! Conservatives corrected this immediately on taking office.
A fair and objective examination of every government department will show a similiar result. Improvement. Let's hope the Conservatives have a majority for 20 years to reverse what the Liberals have done.
I
My frustration is less about helicopters than it is about political incompetence.
DeleteI don't disagree with you about the Liberal's handling of military procurement. I was also aware of the camouflage uniform issue and that our troops had to borrow desert camouflage uniforms from the Americans upon arrival in the Middle East. But the Conservatives are not showing as much improvement as you like to think. They have completely mishandeld the F-35 fighter jet acquisition. Their budget estimates have been proven to be flights of fantasy to the point where even they are now backing off their earlier statements. As for the Sikorsy helicopter deal, the Conservatives have been responsible for the file since 2006 and in six years have proven no more adept at procuring the helicopters than the previous Liberal government. It was a Conservative who indicated two days ago that the government has no idea when the helicopters might be delivered and that is just plain incompetence. The simple reality is that continuing to believe that only the other guys are incompetent but not 'our' guys, as you have suggested in your comment, is precisely what prevents Canadians from getting better government.
Until we start seeing ourselves as Canadians again and stop dividing ourselves into polarized factions only capable of seeing the sins of the other side, we are not going to get anywhere. We've been doing that for decades and it ain't working to well for us.