The Liberal Party should be listening for the sounds of helicopter blades amid the fuss they are making over the Conservatives’ recent decision to purchase 65 replacement fighter jets. If Canadians learned anything from the Liberals during their place in government after Jean ChrĂ©tien, it is that Liberals do not know how to make sound decisions on defence spending.
The Tories are planning on replacing Canada’s fleet of CF-18s with the American F-35 Lightning IIs later this decade. While the cause of Friday’s crash in Lethbridge is not known, the CF-18s are just shy of 30 years old and are starting to show their age. As early as the 1990s their role in conflicts overseas have been limited due to outdated avionics and equipment, most notable in the first Gulf War and NATO air operations against Serbian forces during the occupation of Kosovo. Those deficiencies have since been remedied, to the tune of $2.6 billion in upgrades.
The Liberals have assailed the Conservatives’ decision to purchase the Lightning II, focusing on the government’s choice not to hold a competition. Their overall criticism of the move smacks of the furore ChrĂ©tien created about the replacement of Canada’s decrepit Sea King helicopter fleet in the 1993 general election. The Progressive Conservatives had already signed a $4.8-billion contract to replace the Sea Kings, which ChrĂ©tien assailed as Cadillacs and, true to his word, cancelled it upon taking office. The embarrassment of an increasing number of crashes, lack of current parts and the fact that one hour of flying time required 30 hours of maintenance wasn’t enough to get the ball rolling on replacing the fleet until after ChrĂ©tien was forced into retirement. As a result, the Canadian Forces will not take delivery of the first CH-148 Cyclones until 2013.
So to hear the Liberals again criticize a needed defence replacement contract — even if it is from a different direction — shows the party simply doesn’t get it when it comes to defence. If they are trying to resurrect ChrĂ©tien’s strategy of the early 1990s, it is one that will come at a cost, especially to Canadian business. Since the X-35 was anointed winner of the Joint Strike Fighter program and became the F-35 Lightning II, Canada has been an informed participant of its construction and, as a tier-three partner, has received and will receive hundreds of contracts that could total almost $9 billion in the fighter’s lifetime. To walk away from a project Canadians have so heavily invested in would bring calls of shame from the business sector. And once cancelled or “put on hold,” as Michael Ignatieff has suggested he would do as prime minister, and as our helicopter history has taught us, a replacement might not be selected again until it is overdue.
Canada’s airspace is hotly contested territory, especially in the north. To this day Russia continues to send aircraft to test NORAD’s response. Our government is duty-bound to offer citizens the best possible protection in the form of the best possible military. While the days of the Cold War are now over, air dominance and supremacy are still vital, even in engagements such as the war in Afghanistan. With so many Canadians already invested in the project, it stands to reason the Conservatives would choose the F-35 as the CF-18’s successor and why there is no need to pursue any other aircraft available on the market. If the Liberals can’t even buy a helicopter, there is no reason to think they can successfully purchase a fighter jet, even when it’s needed.
