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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (1947)	2/28/2003 8:56:32 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 37811

More stupidity to ruin your day: Crash marks deadline to buy new choppers $2.9B purchase delayed Andrew McIntosh National Post Friday, February 28, 2003 OTTAWA - The 1993 decision by Jean Chrétien to cancel the Conservative government's purchase of what he called "Cadillac" military helicopters was a popular election campaign promise that later saddled taxpayers with a $500-million bill for penalties. And a decade later, the cancellation, and the Liberal government's inability to manage the process to replace the 40-year-old Sea Kings has become a thorny political problem. Yesterday's Sea King accident came on the eve of a deadline in the government's latest effort to purchase 28 new maritime helicopters -- a deal that will cost taxpayers as much as $2.9-billion. In the Commons, opposition MPs used the crash to attack Mr. Chrétien for his government's inaction. "Had the Prime Minister not cancelled the contract, we would have had new helicopters on board that ship," said Leon Benoit, the defence critic for the Canadian Alliance. "This embarrassing foot dragging, all to save political face, has gone on long enough." "This is an embarrassment for every Canadian from coast to coast," said Elsie Wayne, the Progressive Conservative party's defence critic. "We're endangering the lives of the pilots who are flying them." Opposition MPs have accused the Liberal Cabinet of pressuring the military to "dumb down" technical specifications for its new helicopters, citing internal Defence Department e-mails and reports written by military officers as proof. A companion strategy to buy the "lowest price" helicopter that meets reduced specifications may leave the military with an inferior aircraft, they say, adding political interference is aimed at saving the government the embarrassment of buying the Team Cormorant's EH-101 -- the best helicopter available, but also the one whose purchase was cancelled in 1993. Art Eggleton, the former defence minister, has denied a plan to save face exists, calling the allegations "total folly." Opposition MPs and some defence industry observers say the only "total folly" has been the ongoing mismanagement of the maritime helicopter procurement. amcintosh@nationalpost.com © Copyright 2003 National Post

To: marcos who wrote (1947)	2/28/2003 12:12:25 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37811

There was a polish armoured division with the canadians, from Falaise around July '44... Interesting. I visited a large Polish war cemetery in the area -- between Caen and Falaise, just a stones throw from the big Canadian one at Bretteville sur Laize at Cintheaux. I had a vague notion that the free Poles had participated in Overlord, but hadn't bothered to go back and read up on it. Their cemetery is very different from CWGC ones. Very stark. Of course the Polish govt. refused to acknowledge its existence until after 1990.