Do NOT try to spin this
Babble on.
Maxime Bernier says defence contracts will go to whichever companies are competitive.
OK, Max, then why the hell did your government find it necessary to invoke a frickin' loophole clause to accomplish that? The market doesn't work without you tapping into a national security exception? How stupid do you think we are?
Screwing around with defence procurement, turning it into a hopped-up regional development program, is the sort of total crap we were supposed to have done away with by electing a Conservative government.
And so help me, if I hear one more "loyal Conservative" defend shit like this with a weak-assed line like "think of the big picture" I will frickin' puke. The "big picture" is that our guys were supposed to break from the realpolitik philosophy that was used to justify so much Liberal graft, cronyism, and pork-barrelling. We didn't put up with a garbage rationale like that when Liberals tried to justify Adscam by saying "look at the big picture: national unity!" We should be ashamed spouting the same noxious crap now. I said in a previous post that putting party before country is wrong, and I damned well meant it, my party included.
If I'm wrong, if there's a solid reason for invoking a national security exemption on these contracts, I wish to hell someone would lay it out for me. Because right now, none of the explanations I'm hearing pass the smell test.
Babble off.
posted by Babbling Brooks @ 12:55 p.m.
12 comments
12 Comments:
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/dcgpubs/tbm_122/pr1_e.asp#_Toc443896450
Have a peek at this, it may open the eyes as to why government tries to untie thier own hands when large scale procurement goes forward...
I'm not defending them, I think that the best companies should be picked, but the link will show that Industry Canada isn't interested in the best anything.
Hmmm I may have to try the tiny url thingy... sorry the link is broken into two parts...
http://tinyurl.com/lpkej
maybe this will work
Yeah it looks pretty depressing.
The only upside is that Bernier is fundamentally correct when he says there is a lot of expertise up here that Boeing could draw upon for any of its civil or defense products.
If we make it too revenue-neutral for them then Boeing could well decline and we'd end up getting some half-pint Eurotrash airlifter.
Babbling: I'm with you--link to this post as a comment at "The Torch"--"Update: Politics is Politics--not":
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2006/08/update-politics-is-politics-not.html
Mark
Ottawa
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
"He said that quotas in favour of the West, Quebec and the Atlantic will be in the 10-per-cent range, and that they would have been met regardless of federal intervention."
Then you didn't need to fucking intervene, now did you - ya little toad!
sorry - typos the first time...
I'm willing to take a wait and see attitude on this issue as it stands. If it turns out to be nothing more than pork-barreling and regionalism, then Harper and company will have to answer for it.
On the other hand, I think this is simply another bargaining chip for Harper on the fiscal imbalance issue.
Look at it this way. An equalization receiving Province could offer 200 million in tax incentives to lure the lions share of this business. That puts a Province like Ontario at a disadvantage - facing increasing equalization costs while trying to compete.
If you look at the budget background documents, they specifically mention the Agreement on Internal Trade as one of the issues being examined. The 'fiscal imbalance' issue as it is being played out by the media and the provinces envisions more of the same old same old with the federal government transfering more money to the provinces in one way or another.
Harper and Flaherty are approaching the issue from a much different perspective. In the past Defence has been used as another form of equalization or regional developement, usually at the expense of the military. My guess is that Harper has invoked the NSE in order to ensure a real competitive environment.
When it comes to this round of 'fiscal imbalance' talks, everything is on the table. Personally, I think most Provinces still don't grasp what's coming. Don't forget - there is also approximately $7 billion sitting in those unaccountable foundations established by the Liberals.
We'll see how this plays out. If it is nothing more than regionalism and pork barreling, then I will probably be finished with the CPC as an active participant. They'll have my vote, but my time and money will stay at home.
The actual Agreement on Internal Trade spells out a long process of appeals, etc., in its procurement section, which companies can use if the government doesn't put out a full tender, evaluate their bid fairly, etc. etc.. Perhaps the government invoked the National Security Exemption just so that contracts could get signed and the process underway in less than a year, and so that, in the case of (I think) the strategic lift, there would be no chance of having to wait four years or more for the Airbus paper airplane.
Bless your heart!
And thank you!
YES!
PRINCIPLED CONSERVATIVISM! THE REAL DEAL!
YAY!!!!!!!
I hope you aren't equating Adscam and regional development. Adscam was "liberal" development.
There is no end to the faith that one's own party need never be questioned because all ill sits with the other guys. Corruption and incompetence is an all-party problem and it arises within minutes of power landing in one party's lap. Look at all the Tory sweetheart appointments out east. Same old same old.
Principled conservatism is no different from principled socialism or liberalism. It is just principled and certainly no party has not cornered any market in principle. Not being a supporter of Harper, my only wish is that he will actually simply be more principled. The jury is still out.
ETL, your analogy isn't quite on point, as I see it.
The bank never decided what car you bought, it decided the process you used to buy it.
This seems to me a bit more like you telling the bank that you want to buy the car from your buddy down the street, no matter what the terms or the price. And you're trying to justify it by telling the banker you're just supporting a business in a part of town that's seen better times.
I've sold cars, ETL, and I know most of the tricks in the book.
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