rotary

Could that have added to why he is no longer PM?

Well yes they may change, and I don't think they were likely properly defined to begin with. But fill your boots, piss away all the bucks you want on F 35's if it's what you think you need. The US does tend to invade countries a lot more often than does Canada, so maybe you think you need this stealth thingy. A word of warning though, don't mess with China or Russia or they may just eat the F 35 for breakfast.

They sort of did, but the original folly of this exercise was that the Harper gov't decided to simply hand the contract to the first supplier who came along, and it turns out that product has a serious amount of doubts about it, along with ever escalating costs and failures to meet production time projections. The poor old taxpayer should get some consideration here don't you think?

Perhaps you may have heard that we recently elected a new government. They seem to have this strange concept of asking potential suppliers to submit proposals of their products before asking us to buy them.

Well you can't blame us for trying to get actual value for money spent. How much have those countries you mentioned scaled back their F 35 orders so far?

Then let the military outline it's specific needs, and then pass those along to see which producer can best meet them. A C 130 fulfills a fairly obvious need, and it has done so very well. However I think things get a fair bit more complex when you get beyond a simple transport machine.

I personally don't like the machine, but that's beside the point. When you are spending that much money, it only makes sense to outline the requirements and let potential produces come to the party. Single sourcing as Harper tried to do was probably doomed to come off the rails from the outset. The AG's report confirmed that.

Our allies, you mean like the US who have commented at various levels their support for our current approach to taking ISIS out without wasting more time flying around in F 18's and returning to base with all the ordnance still attached, those allies?

Yep, a proper competition. Been saying that for a quite a while now. Serious competitors will offer production contracts similar to Lock Marts in all likelihood.

Right, but there seem to be a lot more reasons to kiss the 35 good bye beyond it's lack of engines.

You don't need to be shot down to suffer from the single engine problem Especially one that burns as hot as the F 35's. Let's not re learn the F-104 lessons from the past.

From a pilots point of view, I think I would happily trade off the sketchy stealth for a second stove.

Super Hornet is all we need. Who is it we are planning to attack with this, possibly, stealthy airplane?

Which is why trying to flog the 35 as a "one size fits all" machine simply has proven to be too much for one airframe.

Because when it's loaded it can't maneuver, (turn, accelerate, etc.) very well, so it needs protection to get to target.

Correct. If it tried a "first strike" without an F 22 alongside, we'd see a multi million dollar smoking hole in the ground, and hopefully a surviving pilot drifting down in his ejection seat, that's if it didn't break his neck and kill him/her on deployment.

You mean like throwing good money after bad toward the F 35? I'd much rather go in the red to buy things that actually work.

Then I wonder why she supported nafta.

Oh I suspect the relationship will continue to flourish when Hillary takes office.

We shall see what might come out of the cozier relations with our BIGGEST trading partner. At least Trudeau got dinner, which is more than Harper ever got.

Well it's all very interesting to say the least. But I can't imagine how many doors would be soundly nailed shut were Trump to head to the WH. Of course he would have to step back from a lot of his bombast, but most I reckon would view him as a loose cannon based on what he has, and continues to spew. It will be interesting to see how the GOP will try to rake him down.

Well it certainly is an interesting question. Of course the GOP would like to take over the WH, but it seems to me they don't want to do it ubder Trump, and I don't blame them. I think we all understand that his blather is likely a lot worse than his bite, but, how can anyone be sure. But here's a thought, can you imagine the sigh of relief from south of the border if they had another Obama in the race? If I was an American right now I might be thinking about tweaking that two term limit thing.

Trump is an idiot who doesn't help America at all, unless you like your country looking like a joke on a soap opera. Obama has opened the door a nudge to really good cigars. and a lot of nice beaches.

JT has shown more pizazz in a few months than Harper did in all his 9 years. Harper had trouble dealing with Peter Mansbridge while Trudeau had no trouble with the POTUS. What a nice change.

True enough, I'm not quite familiar with all the click buttons here. My apologies. now what were you trying to convince me about Harpers CV vs Trudeaus?