Jerry J. Fortin

It is very nearly a done deal in Alberta. The PC's are going down, bank on it.

Wow! I don't think there is any doubt about it Argus, a true Conservative would have at least offered the resignation to the Prime Minister. Failing that Mr. Harper should have fired him. So much for the accountability and transparency a that a real Conservative Government, which we were lead to believe the case after the Party won a majority election, has allowed to transpire here. Face it, the truth is there are many problems with the F-35 program. Not merely for us, but for all potential customers of the aircraft. The Harper government was slow on the uptake here. That is the long and the short of it. It is being handled the best way they figured they could pull this puppy out of the fire. They have decided not to give the matter any more air time to the extent that they can. But throwing things under the carpet don't work to well, everybody can see the lump in the middle of the room. Now throwing things under the bus is of course yet another story. That will be the next most logical step for the government to take when the heat gets turned up. McKay is the designated fall guy, in as much as it is his Ministry in the first place.

I really don't want any nation to be our enemy. Further to this, I don't think we have any enemies. I cannot imagine the circumstances that would prompt this nation to attack either the Americans, or the Russians. who represent the sum total of our neighbors. What defense strategy is required under those circumstances? Honestly, we do not stand a hope of defending this nation, against either of our neighbors, which is where any real trouble that actually threatens the citizens can come from. To try and defend it will cost us billions and we simply cannot do what most people believe we need to do which is simply defending our borders. Therefore the nation requires a new approach. In defense of this nation we need to rethink what we are doing. Its not as simple as advertizing who are friends are or who are enemies are. There is a paradigm shift possibility in as much as one possible outcome would see the nation declare itself neutral. That choice would void the need for any military expenditures at all. There are many possibilities..........

That is the problem Bill. We are ready to buy the planes, at least I am hoping that since the feds spent 777 million dollars on the research and development of the F-35 that we should probably be ready to buy something soon! At this rate we could build our own F-22 ! The tax payer would like to see something for their sweat equity, and a very public display of political stupidity does not serve that purpose very well.....

I think folks are little confused. They should not be, its the function of the Canadian Government to explain the things it does. In this particular case, the AG was responsible to undertake a forensic audit of government books. It does this every year, and in fact the government can direct the AG to do pretty much as it pleases. After all the AG is a government servant. Moving on to the media fiasco of the day, the AG report appears to place the government in a bad light. The report clearly states that the government did not provide an accurate accounting of funds allocated toward the F-35 project. The 2012 budget for DND has a little 3.5 billion dollar nest egg, that is not specifically spoken for. In any language this is a slush fund. Pretty big slush fund at that. Now considering that we already spent more than 750 million dollars on an aircraft that we have yet to commit to buying, the public is beginning to get more curious, and so is the media. As they tell us to tighten our belts, there is a recession don't you know, they carry a slush fund on their books. Go figure! There is much hype right now and little substance. My suggestion would be for everyone to take two steps back and start over. Without a formal new national defense strategy, we are swinging wild and hitting nothing. We mix politics with national defense and we have problems. Then we are surprised, not very smart is it? Why not stand up in the House of Commons and announce a bill to "study" the nations armed forces and our national defense strategy. Is it to much to ask the federal government to round up and hire as many people as it would need to provide the citizens with a comprehensive National Defense Plan. Currently we are at each others throats till the cows come home. The need for leadership is upon us.

Which is what? I did say that NOBODY was talking about the truth. Not me, not you, nor anyone else is talking about the truth here. The reason for it is simply the lack of transparency within the process. Nobody knows how this will play put. I will suggest that in truth we NEED NEW aircraft. It is going to be expensive no matter what aircraft we choose. The tax payer is paying for the whole show and they just want some answers. To that end, many questions are being asked, my questions are like everyone else. How much is this going to cost me? The government had two sets of numbers, they low balled it and were caught in the act. They have been called, and have started to do their little victory dance. That victory comes at the expense of Canadian tax paying citizens.

The F-35 should be viewed as a hanger queen until further notice. This aircraft does not meet its own flight envelope. It does not meet the standards the company was contracted for. Notwithstanding our own investment in the program, which is about 777 million dollars, we still have not signed an agreement to purchase the aircraft. Anyone wonder how we can afford to dump three quarters of a billion dollars on a business plan to build fighter jets? Some folks want to argue about this cost or that cost, they want to argue about who said what and when. The truth is the one thing nobody is talking about.

I must agree.

I think that many of the people posting want the same thing. An open process, where the people that are paying the bill get to see how much is spent on what. Mr. Harper USED to be an advocate of a fair and open process, he has said so many times. Yet now that he is in control...............

They are in spin mode as we speak. But they cannot run and they cannot hide from this little reality. So all that leaves is to bury it with other crap. They strangely enough get two weeks, fourteen days to spin their little hearts out.

You may be right about the cabinet postings. If somebody does not lose their job over this I would be very surprised.

"deliberate misrepresentations in a tabled document" When the members of the House of Commons return from yet another paid two week vacation, I expect that some member will have concluded that this majority government of the Conservatives is once again guilty of contempt. This time things are very different from their last brush with contempt before the election. This time there is nowhere to hide.

Is it time for a tax revolt yet? I am up for it if it happens.

All of this makes me very happy that there is no election on the horizon. Lets see what the numbers look like in a few more years. There is nothing we can do short of making a case for resignation. I have the feeling that if he can be tagged once, he will go down hard. Harper is no superman by any stretch of the imagination, but he is very much an astute opportunist. I do think he has a glass jaw though, maybe the F-35 is the uppercut needed to find out.

That would depend on how much grass you have to cut. It takes me a hair under 4 hours to cut it all on the Deere, 54 inch deck. Topography also enters into the equation. Do you know why now?

Who knows what else they are building down there. I can tell you that I liked both of Boeing's X-32 and the Northrop YF-23. The Rafael, Eurofighter Typhoon, and god only knows how many others have already built or are planning to be built. In my view we need more national defense thinking and less force projection thinking. To that end I would suggest a different approach. Why not build/buy unmanned stealthy drones and provide some form of unmanned combat air patrol. We can get away with a handful of true interceptors if we cover our other bases.

Food for thought Let me see, instead of spending what now appears to be the high side of 30 billion dollars for F35's, we could spend the same money to buy what the Saudi's just did with the Americans. One hundred and fifty four damned fine aircraft. How many more squadrons for the same money? Go ahead make my day. Toss in some A10's i know where we can get 110 of the little birds, It seems there are a number of Galaxy's for sale as well. If we have to go shopping around then do it whole hog. Lets get the biggest bang for our buck that we can afford.

Wary is smart. and safe. Its not like the Americans are innocent either. Flip flop is a game of statesmanship played by each and everyone of the nations in the UN. Such is not my point though. I merely ask how much we want to have a military force at tax payer expense. I think we should do something like figure what our priorities are.

The Americans are shutting down a few National Guard squadrons. Yes these are high mileage birds, but we need something to tide us over until we can make the proper decisions based on up to date information. This contract is a big deal. They have A10's F15,F16,F18'sm, No AC 130 Spectre are for sale. but we can get some A10 for some much needed air to mud missions to support our own troops. Yet there are lots of birds available. more than a thousand I hear. Attack aircraft are what we do not have and we really do need them. Ask a military guy....air cover is a nice thing. We can't do it right now. Do we need to? Lets hope not because we can't if we have to. We need to design a military force before we decide to buy shit we will never use or will never need. We need to think about national defense prior to designing a mission profile that requires force projection outside our borders, a capability we do not have anyway. I say if the Yankees are having the firesale that it is possible we could find a bargain or two. Spare parts are not cheap, but its cheaper than buying new planes.

I am already thinking about losing sleep over being invaded by the USA, or Russia. We have no natural enemies. It is easy to say because its true. If you feel threatened by our relationship with Russia. you are in a minority position of public opinion. Fear mongering is the flavour of the day. In my view this boils down to dollar bills and common sense. The F35 just got tossed out for now. Never fear it will be back. There are very damned few aircraft that will satisfy our operational requirements. The issue is not the bird, its the one in the hand equals two in the bush kinda sentiment.

There will in fact be a real competition for the contract. There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. We need birds, lets find out what we can get to maximize our expenditures. AS it stands we will start losing F18's at very nearly the rate we received them. That will start to happening a few short years. Its a question of airframe hours, engine hours. We can by the way get our hands on some gently used F15's. As a matter of fact we we would be well advised to rethink our operational requirements and design a force sufficient to serve our purposes. This is Canada, we have no natural enemies. What we need fighters for is to assist in North American defense.We have no need to project force outside of a national defense equation. Since that is the reality, it would seem prudent for concerned neighbors to assist each other to the extent possible. That means working with our partners toward common goals. We are mixing politics and self defense. Bad idea............

I am sure it would be cheaper to buy the CBC if it was for sale, than this flying pig of an aircraft. Keep in mind the design is 15 years old. In all that time there are still numerous bugs in the system. Flyaway cost today, 132 million dollars. Not the 75 million spouted. Lets get real hear. The scope of this fiasco is about to expand. There is now a real possibility that the government may be compelled avoid the political landmines associated with uncontested single source contracts. This is a game changer for Canada. There is a majority government, and they have been told by the AG and the public is pissed. We could even see an open competition. We could even see the purchase setback, to cover the required timeline, and a tactical choice to buy as many used aircraft as we could reasonably afford while waiting for final approval of a winner in the competition.

The Canadian government has not committed to the purchase of this aircraft. Thank God!

This is one little straw on the back of the PC camel. If you look closely you can see that there is a great many straws on that old camel.

Perhaps you cannot see how it will impact citizens. I suspect that "the lone staffer" is not really alone.