- Reaction score
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- 460
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An interesting opinion.
http://www.abbynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=38&cat=48&id=835111&more=
When the Conservative Party assumed the helm of the nation a little more than one year ago, they were left to clean up the mess that was the outgoing Liberal Party’s military strategy.
Part of it was the loss of life stemming from the government’s mismanagement of the souring situation in Afghanistan.
Now comes news that the Canadian Armed Forces is pondering the early retirement of two of its outdated supply ships, one of which is venerable Esquimalt-based HMCS Protecteur.
No matter how those currently opposed to the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper may wish to shape it, the financial challenges faced by the Armed Forces today is not something the Conservatives should suffer blame for. They are simply reaping the aftermath of more than a decade of Liberal disinterest in the state of the nation’s forces.
The Conservatives must tread carefully. They assumed responsibility for the deployment of Canadian forces in Afghanistan when they forced other parties into backing the status quo – a politically motivated action that pre-empted a change in how our forces are deployed in that theatre.
And likewise, Harper’s minority government has all but assumed responsibility for another in a long list of Liberal military failures: the Victoria-class submarines.
When the government announced that a local company would gain the right to service the four decrepit, recycled former British submarines, they kept the door open on a very costly farce that has cost Canadians far too much money.
The submarines’ troubles are well documented. Years after acquisition, not one is engaged in regular, reliable active patrol.
Esquimalt-based HMCS Victoria lies idle, with its scheduled start of active duty delayed many times, and now left for some tentative date at least two or three years in the future – at best. HMCS Chicoutimi won’t be available for active service until 2012, at which point the Victoria-class diesel-electric submarines will be almost 40 years old: the age of the Protecteur-class vessels targeted for mothballing.
The Canadian taxpayer has shoveled billions of dollars towards these ailing machines, without anything constructive in return.
Rather than mothball supply ships that are needed to fulfill Canada’s role in international affairs, the Conservatives should scrap the submarine program. They could save excessive repair costs. Further, for those with political points to gain, the much-overdue scrapping of the submarines would remind the nation that the failed project is just one of many costly Liberal lemons visited upon the over-taxed taxpayer. – The Esquimalt News
An interesting opinion.
http://www.abbynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=38&cat=48&id=835111&more=
When the Conservative Party assumed the helm of the nation a little more than one year ago, they were left to clean up the mess that was the outgoing Liberal Party’s military strategy.
Part of it was the loss of life stemming from the government’s mismanagement of the souring situation in Afghanistan.
Now comes news that the Canadian Armed Forces is pondering the early retirement of two of its outdated supply ships, one of which is venerable Esquimalt-based HMCS Protecteur.
No matter how those currently opposed to the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper may wish to shape it, the financial challenges faced by the Armed Forces today is not something the Conservatives should suffer blame for. They are simply reaping the aftermath of more than a decade of Liberal disinterest in the state of the nation’s forces.
The Conservatives must tread carefully. They assumed responsibility for the deployment of Canadian forces in Afghanistan when they forced other parties into backing the status quo – a politically motivated action that pre-empted a change in how our forces are deployed in that theatre.
And likewise, Harper’s minority government has all but assumed responsibility for another in a long list of Liberal military failures: the Victoria-class submarines.
When the government announced that a local company would gain the right to service the four decrepit, recycled former British submarines, they kept the door open on a very costly farce that has cost Canadians far too much money.
The submarines’ troubles are well documented. Years after acquisition, not one is engaged in regular, reliable active patrol.
Esquimalt-based HMCS Victoria lies idle, with its scheduled start of active duty delayed many times, and now left for some tentative date at least two or three years in the future – at best. HMCS Chicoutimi won’t be available for active service until 2012, at which point the Victoria-class diesel-electric submarines will be almost 40 years old: the age of the Protecteur-class vessels targeted for mothballing.
The Canadian taxpayer has shoveled billions of dollars towards these ailing machines, without anything constructive in return.
Rather than mothball supply ships that are needed to fulfill Canada’s role in international affairs, the Conservatives should scrap the submarine program. They could save excessive repair costs. Further, for those with political points to gain, the much-overdue scrapping of the submarines would remind the nation that the failed project is just one of many costly Liberal lemons visited upon the over-taxed taxpayer. – The Esquimalt News