Better go to confession, Julian

Seeing as to how Fantino is failing in his holy anddecent mission to equip the armed forces…

In  November 2011, I wrote "watch for the cancellation or shelving of the F-35 as harper now blames the Liberals" for opening the competition."

Wow.  The gung-ho war on  everything take no prisoners use support the troops party of steve is in “retreat?”  It is “publicly backtracking?”  

Thomas Walkom says in his article that this flimsy acknowledgement by Fantino that the crusade for the F-35 may not take the field is harper admitting he was wrong.  I think not.  The Crime Minister will never admit he was wrong.  Never.  He will continue to blame the Liberals.  That’s a no-brainer.

Still, it makes me enjoy a wicked thought.  The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc could just toss back steve’s vile speaking points at the CONs rather than write their own, but they won’t, and in reality I am glad for that. 

But let us indulge in a bit of fiendish fun:

“Our experts have put out their detailed figures and everything we've seen is within those figures and their contingencies — the contingencies that have been allowed," Harper said. (April 26, 2011)

"A lot of the developmental costs you're reading in the United States, the contract we've signed shelters us from any increase in those kinds of costs. We're very confident of our cost estimates and we have built in some latitude, some contingency in any case. So we are very confident we are within those measures." (harper, April 8, 2011)

My favorite:

“We will purchase the F-35,” Fantino asserted. “We’re on record. We’re part of the crusade. We’re not backing down.” (November 2011)

And (note the date!)–

"Canada has set a budget for replacement aircraft and we have been clear that we will operate within that budget," Fantino said in a statement. (March 2, 2012)

Baird must now acknowledge that the harper party doesn’t support the troops -

 “…there is nodenying that the new jet fighters that our air force so desperately needs to replace the CF-18s, which will be 40 years old, will have a price…“Let me say this,” Mr. Baird went on, warming up now. “The men and women in the Canadian armed forces are prepared to pay the ultimate price. They are prepared to sacrifice. They are brave. What do they count on? They count on the government to provide them with the tools they need. If that means it is going to be $50 a year or $1 a week to provide for Canadian sovereignty and to give our men and women the tools they need to do the job, it is a price that we are prepared to pay.” (March 10, 2011)

Not so much today, eh, Baird?

We musn’t leave out Airshow:

“We have been clear that we will operate within that budget,” (MacKay) said in a speech to the Conference of Defence Associations annual meeting. “And we will give our air men and women the best available aircraft, which I believe is the fifth-generation, F-35 Lightning II.” (February 4, 2012)

Right, Pete.  Run and get DND to dig up some way to further blame the Liberals for your failure to give the beloved troops “the best available aircraft.”

And a few photos for our pleasure -