Planes and Copters, Oh my!

One of the ideas floating around right now is what the Conservatives are calling "Buy Canadian". They want to ensure that Canadian companies are getting a big enough piece of the military spending. Of course this will mean subsidies, lots of subsidies. Giving money to corporations who are already sucking on that teat won't create any more jobs here. What we need is a military purchasing strategy that is in the best interests of Canada.

Here's a better idea, let's bring back the A.V. Roe Arrow! There was a time when Canada had the people and the will to build our own jet plane. Let's build another. There would be many benefits, not the least of which is that the money would stay here in Canada.

For the military types this plane could include all of the features they are after. Build what you want into it. Every conceivable toy a warrior could want, just add it to the list. We have the ability to engineer another great aeroplane.

Same thing could go for any new helicopters we need. Probably work for submarines as well, we know we can build them. Pretty much had to (re)build the ones we have now! In the last 20 years we could have built a dozen different helicopters while various political parties bickered over how and or what to replace those Sea King Copters we have with. Designed, engineered and built! Plus those old birds would have been replaced by now.

I think many will find fault with this, but I have another reason to suggest this route for our military endeavors. Personally I don't believe we should be using weapons made by other countries to kill people in other countries. Think about it, if you want to take your country to war, shouldn't you use your own weapons?

I believe that if we want supersonic jets we should build our own. If we need new helicopters we need to build our own. And if we want new submarines we should be building our own.

The only problem I can see is that yet another Conservative government would sell us out again and shut it down once it was finished!

Thanks for taking the time!

Steve