Government looking to trim order for military helicopters

The link is gone? Anyways judging from the title. If they are refering to the Government trimming down on buying more military helicopters. I was kind of expecting that.

We have a really cheap government regarding military. Well not as of lately. To get from where we were to where we are now has been really costly. The cost of not funding our military for so long and than all of a sudden bringing it into a modern age.

Well atleast we got the helictopers we got now. Should do us unti'll they break down or when we exit the war the government sells them off. Despite paying 4x as much for them.

Hmmmm...link's fixed...at least it was fixed...

But I thought Harper and the Conservatives loved the military. It's page right out of the political handbook we've had since the 60s, promise big, then when everyone forgets, cancel/scale back the project.

This is just further evidence that they aren't all that much better than the Liberals were in the defence portfolio.

Yet to hear some conservatives tell us the military is filled with conservative living and conservative voting good ole boys yet the spending difference between the Liberals and CPC on defence is non-existent. Seems to me its not a case of the Liberals hating the military but rather the military holding only the Liberals accountable for less then desirable defence spending.

Were the Liberals still in power I doubt the CF would see any Chinooks. So while I would like to see them get the full order of 16, 14 (20 if we retain the six we have) is better than 0.

Show me a political party that gives the CF more support and funding than the Conservatives and I will vote for them instead.

Promise.

The Liberals (certainly under Martin) spent big on the military. The fact is that virtually everybody attacking them for perceived lack of defence spending never bother factoring in things like cost or the fact that the government is responsible to the people and the people want services for their taxes.

Show me that the public supports the kind of large scale funding increases you want and you'll get your parties supporting it.

There is a reason why Harper hasn't come through and its not that he loves the military anymore then the Liberals hate them.

So military is pushed back during hard economic times. I'm not sure why this is surprising. Plus governments are cheap. Extremely cheap. The last 30 years or so of being cheap with our military means we're going to need to pump in a crapload of cash to moderize it, however, the economy isn't exactly flying high right now, so the government isn't wanting to be cheap...

Okay except for the air force, which doesn't know a rip off if it got smacked over the head a few times.

I think I can answer this properly.

1) Its always "governments" when the conservatives do it but the "Liberals" when they do it. A distinct difference don't you agree?

2) The last 30 years seems to be blamed entirely on the Liberals and when blame is heaped on Mulroneys PCs he gets let off the hook for various reasons including the end of the cold war (but no mention of the gulf war) and the early 90s recession. No such consideration is given to the Libs. In fact despite the Libs inheriting the worst possible deficit, debt, and economy they were expected to lower taxes, eliminate the deficit, and increase funding to the military.

The reality soon hit. They campaigned on not buying helos, an act which is considered the blackest of scandals despite being an actual campaign promise they kept. They are not forgiven because of economical woes but Harper gets a pass?

3) Harper had all the money and momentum in the world to push through whatever military purchases he wanted too. He inherited a 14 billion dollar surplus and a weakened opposition he exploited. He could easily have kept his military purchase promises but he did not.

He chose not to do this knowing full well the military voters who so fervently vote con had nowhere to turn when he stuck it too them.

4) Everybody explained to Harper what he could do to avoid this. He choose to enact ill-advised tax cuts to curry favour. He could easily avoided the massive deficit and kept military purchase promises but he choose not to.

Letting Harper off the hook is inexcusable.

I think I can answer this properly.

1) Its always "governments" when the conservatives do it but the "Liberals" when they do it. A distinct difference don't you agree?

2) The last 30 years seems to be blamed entirely on the Liberals and when blame is heaped on Mulroneys PCs he gets let off the hook for various reasons including the end of the cold war (but no mention of the gulf war) and the early 90s recession. No such consideration is given to the Libs. In fact despite the Libs inheriting the worst possible deficit, debt, and economy they were expected to lower taxes, eliminate the deficit, and increase funding to the military.

The reality soon hit. They campaigned on not buying helos, an act which is considered the blackest of scandals despite being an actual campaign promise they kept. They are not forgiven because of economical woes but Harper gets a pass?

3) Harper had all the money and momentum in the world to push through whatever military purchases he wanted too. He inherited a 14 billion dollar surplus and a weakened opposition he exploited. He could easily have kept his military purchase promises but he did not.

He chose not to do this knowing full well the military voters who so fervently vote con had nowhere to turn when he stuck it too them.

4) Everybody explained to Harper what he could do to avoid this. He choose to enact ill-advised tax cuts to curry favour. He could easily avoided the massive deficit and kept military purchase promises but he choose not to.

Letting Harper off the hook is inexcusable.

Over the past decade both the Liberals and Conservatives raised the defence budget in conjunction with the increased strength of the economy and the war in Afghanistan. And when the war ends and with the deficit whomever is in power will gut the military once again, only to gun-tape it back together again when the next crisis arises.

So unless either party builds a campaign specifically around strengthening the forces to protect our domestic interests, don't bother voting for one party or the other based on the military, because they fuck it over equally.