The attacks on the federal government’s national shipbuilding program
haven’t been as sustained as the endless denigration of the jet
purchase. Maybe that’s because most of the $35 billion Ottawa is
budgeting for navy and coast guard ships will be spent within Canadian
borders.
It’s the $14.7 billion they intend to spend on the F-35 fighter jet program (or $16 billion or $18 billion, depending on who you believe — or $29.3 billion or even $35 billion if you fold 30 years of parts and maintenance into the price tag) that really gets the official NDP Opposition’s goat. Man, they hate the idea.
It’s the $14.7 billion they intend to spend on the F-35 fighter jet program (or $16 billion or $18 billion, depending on who you believe — or $29.3 billion or even $35 billion if you fold 30 years of parts and maintenance into the price tag) that really gets the official NDP Opposition’s goat. Man, they hate the idea.
The replacement plan for Canada’s aging F-18 fleet was the controversy
the NDP used to spark the last federal election. In the last two years
barely a week has passed in which the F-35 program has not been in the
news, and only a few of those reports have been positive.
Two weeks ago we heard Lockheed-Martin had conducted the first bombing
test run with one of the 40 models of the F-35 already flying, and it
worked. A vertical-take-off version of the fighter — not the kind Canada
wants to buy — successfully released a half-tonne smart bomb, which hit
its target.
Other than that story, which ran in some but by no means all Canadian
news outlets, the tone of the news coverage of the jet purchase has been
an unrelenting drumbeat of criticism from the day the Liberals were no
longer responsible for it (buying them was their idea, initially).
Polls have shown Canadians are generally in favour of increased spending
on the military, and we like the idea of keeping up to date with new
ships and helicopters and tanks and the rest of it. But the anti- F-35
campaign seems to be souring us on the idea of buying the new jets.
Last week I had the chance to ask Conservative MP Chris Alexander, the
parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Defence, about the
much-maligned fighter program.
Alexander hadn’t yet heard about the successful bombing run. But he
pointed out another piece of good news about the F-35 that has also gone
largely unreported:
“Japan came on board this month. That didn’t get much attention either
because it doesn’t match the Opposition’s agenda.” Japan agreed July 2
to buy four F-35s at a cost of $750 million, including simulators and
parts.
Japan decided the new jet’s stealth capabilities and maneuverability
were worth paying $3.7 million more per unit than they had agreed to
nearly a year ago. And it still intends to buy 38 more of the jets if
they like the performance of the first four.
Critics have made much of the fact that the estimated cost of the F-35
jets has risen by many millions each since the program began more than a
decade ago as a secretive experimental design. Some European partners
in the international development consortium say they may buy fewer
planes because of the price increase, and some could drop out.
Alexander predicts the F-35 will become even more controversial this
fall as the U.S. presidential election heats up and the two sides start
hurling accusations of their own about the gigantic program, the most
expensive in American history at a cost estimated at up to $1.45
trillion.
“It’s a unique project for the U.S., too — it’s replacing five of their
current models of aircraft,” Alexander points out. The final Canadian
decision to commit to the F-35 has not yet been made by the current
government, he says (a claim the opposition refutes).
The final buy won’t be OKed until further studies and audits are
complete and the government is convinced all procurement rules have been
followed.
Ottawa’s recent equipment purchases of trucks, tanks and heavy lift
planes show that its defence buying “has improved considerably” from the
days when we bought old submarines that wouldn’t work, Alexander
contends.
That doesn’t mean the NDP’s hatred of the F-35 project is going to
abate. But another event this fall could take the sting out of their
attacks, it occurred to me long after my conversation with Alexander.
It’s starting to look as though Quebecers might elect another separatist
provincial government when they go to the polls in two weeks.
Most of the Opposition’s MPs hail from Quebec, where the majority of
voters have historically been as anti-military as the NDP have been.
A new separatist regime in Quebec City would be a big headache for Prime
Minister Stephen Harper. But it would also neutralize the opposition’s
biggest complaint about his government.
Who in the rest of Canada will listen to separatist complaints about a jet program they don’t intend to help pay for?
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