Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Evan Solomon's Explosive Interview Demonstrating Harper Lies

I have made no secret of my absolute disdain for the Harper government and the threat I sincerely believe that it poses to both democracy and our Canadian way of life. While Conservative true believers quite blithely dismiss such concerns as partisan hyperbole, sometimes something comes along that objectively suggests the foundation of lies upon which the Conservative Party is building its campaign.

That something occurred on today's (Tuesday's) installment of Power and Politics with Evan Solomon. Solomon first interviewed Laurie Hawn, Parliamentary Secretary to Defense Minister Peter McKay, who insisted that the Conservatives, despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer's assertions to the contrary, will be able to buy 65 F-35 jets for $9 billion, including all of the associated infrastructure. He dismissed the objections raised by NDP candidate Jack Harris and Liberal candidate Dominic LeBlanc that this figure cannot withstand scrutiny, and that the costs will be much higher, ($120-$130 billion for each jet), telling them that they didn't understand the math behind the figure.

After the interview, Solomon conducted one with Mike Sullivan, the Director of U.S. Government Accountability Office equivalent to both our Auditor General and our Parliamentary Budget Officer. It was during this interview that the deceptions being perpetrated by the Harper regime should have become obvious to even the most ardent Tory supporter who still claims to think independently. Click here to watch the interview.

6 comments:

  1. "$120-$130 billion for each jet[.]"

    Do you mean million?

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  2. $120-$130 BILLION for each jet ???
    That can't be right.

    regards
    cowardly anonymous proof reader

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  3. Oops! Thanks to the both of you for pointing out my typo. I've amended the error.

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  4. Hi, the math seems a little confusing in your post.

    According to you, Peter McKay says we can buy 65 jets for $9B. That's $9B/65 = around $138.5M per jet.

    Then you go on to say that Jack Harris and Dominic Leblanc say the price tag of each jet will be much higher at $120-$130M (corrected according to your comment).

    $138.5M (gov't estimate) is a higher per-jet price tag than $120-$130M (opposition estimate). This part makes your post a little confusing (at least to me, maybe I missed something).

    I think it'll be much clearer if you compare the per-jet price tags for both estimates (government and opposition).

    thanks,
    some other cowardly anonymous proof reader

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  5. Thanks for pointing out the confusion. In my haste to write the post, I left out some crucial information. I will try to amend it in a supplementary post in a few minutes.

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  6. The CF-18 is still a kick [censored] jet as far as I am concerned. We could get at least two of these for the price of one F-35. The CF-18 is faster and has a longer range is better suited to flying in cold weather (this is hockey country remember). The F-35 is not going to cut it and it is time to scrap the deal, which by the way will not cost a damn thing at this point. Yes, that's correct, it's not too late yet! It is not too late for Harper to say, "you know, I think on the second thought, maybe these F-35 fighter jets are not such a good deal after all." The Australians have already reconsidered and are sticking to the super hornet (that is the F-18). If Harper doesn't change his mind, perhaps Canadians should change their minds about him.

    ReplyDelete