Actually, there are more than two, but I don’t feel like writing a twenty-thousand word essay tonight. So I’ll limit this to just a couple, or so.
First up of course is the idea of spending BILLIONS of dollars on new fighter aircraft. I’m going to assume that’s because we live in an unstable part of the world where we are constantly at risk of invasion. No? Maybe the Conservative government is correct and we need them to assert our Arctic sovereignty. Against whom?
Anyone who is likely to be trekking about in the high north isn’t anyone we’re likely to shoot at. Let’s face it. The only countries actively challenging us in the Arctic are the U.S. and Russia. It’s really unlikely that we’re going to shoot at either of them. I mean really. If the U.S. thought that might happen, they probably wouldn’t be selling us the aircraft to make that possible. Add to this Prime Minister Harper’s own comment. According to the man who wants to buy these planes, the greatest threat to Canadian sovereignty is “Islamicist Terror”. I think it would be nice if he decided which threat we’re supposed to address and who these jets will address either.
My next nit to pick regards a fairly simple question. Why don’t we build our own jets? We’ve got our own aircraft industry. We’ve got more than enough technical knowledge. The Conservatives keep talking about how they plan to create jobs. Seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s not like we have any imminent threat demanding we upgrade in the immediate future. Fact is this could be a long term investment in Canadian businesses, creating Canadian jobs and employing Canadian technologists. What a concept.
Lastly tonight, I would like to raise a point I noticed in an article in Maclean’s. The jets which Mr. Harper and his fellow Bedlamites want spend billions on to defend the Arctic from “Islamicist Terror”, seems there might be a little problem with that. Apparently they won’t be able to communicate from there. A lack of polar orbiting communications satellites renders these awesome beasts mute. Way to plan Team Harper!
If the same salesperson from the U.S. shows up and starts talking bridges, give me a call. For twenty bucks and a couple of beers I can do a better job of advising you than the “pro”s you had for this one.
Cheers, Winston
Brain Bits To Go 
I’m thinking you have never done tour where you were dropped in under equipped and having to depend on sketchy support from other countries. Inter-governmental red tape is bad enough. Try inter-country red tape. It can take up to 2 days to get decent air support when you really need it in 2 minutes. Case in point: Canadian troops having to hitch rides with other countries choppers just to support our own guys. We still have yet to see the “New Helicopters” we were promised 10 years ago and the Afghan mission is still ongoing.
In answer to us not living in an “Unstable” part of the world you might want to ask our American neighbors how that worked out for them in the Second world war and then again on 9/11. Thinking that a nice stretch of ocean is a sufficient deterrent is a bit of a stretch in the common sense department.
As for the “Build Them at Home” idea. I like it. However, you might want to find out the cost difference between buying new jets and retooling or building from scratch our current aircraft manufacturing infrastructure. As for the communication issues, As you know I have personally been farther north than that on more than one occasion and never had any problems with radio communication via satellite.
Let me know how you make out with this. I look forward to being corrected on these and other issues.
Just try to keep in mind I see these issues from a ‘been there, done that’ point of view.
Have a great day in isolationist world.