The Torch: The Liberals and the C-130J

Flippity floppity (just like Mr O'Connor when National Defence critic and then MND):

When the House of Commons convenes in January, the standing committee on national defence will begin detailed hearings on defence-procurement policies. The hearings will provide the Liberal party an opportunity to implement its pre-election promise to help rebuild the Canadian Forces, reform the defence-procurement process and expedite long-delayed major equipment contracts.

But now that the Liberals are sitting in opposition, that promise appears to have been an exercise in optics rather than policy.

Take the case of the new medium-lift planes our Armed Forces need to replace the 32 aging Hercules that make up the present fleet. On Nov. 22, 2005, then Liberal defence minister Bill Graham and Scott Brison, then minister for public works and government services Canada, the contracting agent for defence procurement, announced their intention to acquire 16 medium-lift aircraft to replace the Hercules fleet as the first step in a wholesale rebuilding of air-force transportation capabilities. The purchase, Mr. Graham announced, was central to the government's defence policy and "absolutely essential to the mission" of the Canadian Forces. The Herc replacement plan, moreover, would be "based upon a very small number of minimum performance requirements established by our military operational experts."

The ministers denied that these requirements worked in favour of the new Lockheed Martin Hercules C130J. Mr. Graham, however, emphasized that an operationally certified aircraft must be delivered within "36 months from when we sign the contract and we are going to work trying to get an aircraft earlier than the 36 month [deadline]." These criteria effectively blocked a bid from the only other competitor on the horizon, the Airbus A400M, which at best would not be deliverable before 2010 and more likely not before 2012.

Be that as it may, the urgency of the situation demanded, said Mr. Graham and Mr. Brison, "a streamlined procurement process."..

Yet the urgency that inspired Mr. Graham and Mr. Brison to act decisively a year ago is now a distant memory. The Liberals have mounted a concerted attack on the new Hercules C130J. In 2005, Messrs. Graham and Brison pegged the total cost of the aircraft and it supporting package at "around $4- to $5-billion." But they seem to have forgotten all about that: In Question Period on Dec. 12, the Liberals professed to be scandalized because the Conservative estimate for essentially the same aircraft package is $4.9-billion.

Denis Coderre, the newly appointed Liberal defence critic [not much hope here--Babbling's expectations look spot on], has decried the C130J as an "expensive flying lemon," yet he said nothing of the kind when Mr. Graham promoted the same aircraft as defence minister...

I suppose the A400M could be described as an expensive non-flying fruit that may well turn sour.

As for Mr O'Connor in December, 2005 (even big on regional benefits):