Goose Bay silliness

David Pulgliese of the Ottawa Citizen raises at his blog the ugly spectre that our Afghan commitment is impeding the implementation of a Conservative campaign promise to expand CFB Goose Bay:

Some Newfoundlanders aren’t too thrilled with Defence Minister Peter MacKay if some of the emails I have received in the last little while are any indication. Mr. MacKay was visiting Newfoundland/Labrador late last month saying that the Harper government is still committed to its election promises made in regards to 5 Wing Goose Bay (rapid response battalion, UAV squadron, if memory serves me right).

But it seems that the Afghan war keeps getting in the way of fulfilling those promises. According to news reports Mr. MacKay told local journalists that the expansion of the air base still figures into the Defence Department’s plans.

Just not now, however, because any extra money has to go towards Afghan operations...

So blame that Afghan war for something more. I wonder why Mr. Pugliese does not bother to consider whether the "rapid response battalion" made any sense in the first place in terms of priorities for the badly-strapped CF. In fact it makes no sense at all. It was one of several "Stupid Conservative defence promises"-- "The Goose Bay boondoggle" as Sen. Colin Kenny has put it.

And what about another possible boondoggle, a "Northern Sovereignty Support Centre" for Goose Bay that Mr. Pugliese mentioned himself in February last year?

Mr. Pugliese appears to have more interest in embarrassing the government for not carrying out silly promises--and in putting the blame for that failure on Afghanistan--than in using his expertise in defence matters to report on the sense of those promises in the first place. There's plenty enough to embarrass the Conservatives on that front.

See the comment by M. Shannon at Mr. Pugliese's post.