F35 Purchase Process Flawed

(Aired on July 21, 2010)

Doug Collins told us earlier this week that it's about time Canada spends billions of dollars on new fighter jets to replace our aging fleet of CF18s.  Unlike Doug, I'm not going to jump in with both feet.

First, I'm not the happiest about a multi-billion dollar contract going to Lockheed Martin without a bid process.  Even at the local level, it's important that significant contracts be put out to tender.  I'm aware that their aren't too many companies in the world that make fighter planes, but some sort of competitive process would have been helpful.  Lockheed Martin has been criticized, and in fact penalized by the US government, because this F35 program has been racked with cost overruns and delays.  Unhappily, it appears Prime Minister Stephen Harper's tendency to simply follow Washington's lead is coming through here.  The United States has ordered 2400 F35s for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.

But more than that, I'll agree with the columnist in the National Post who said the Harper government needs to give Canadians a full and complete vision of what the role of our armed forces will be going forward before making these purchases.  If the war in Afghanistan is the new model for what we can expect in world conflict in the future, we have to realize that our country didn't use the CF18s in Afghanistan.

However, if the primary mission for the new F35s will be to defend the homeland, is that really the best use of taxpayers' money?  I think the smarter money would go into beefed up security at ground crossings and airports.  Even smarter money would go into promoting diplomacy as a means of diffusing conflict.  If we really want to eliminate our enemies, the best way to do it isn't killing them, but by turning them into friends.  Call it naivete, but too many of us are outgrowing our idealism.