Harper's conflicted Jets and Helicopters

Raymond Sturgeon is a Conservative candidate in northern Ontario. He is a senior partner at the Ottawa-based lobbying firm CFN Consultants. It specializes in defence and security and Lockheed Martin is one of several clients that sells aircraft and equipment to government departments.

The registry shows he was an active lobbyist for Lockheed Martin until December 15, 2010. Shortly after his registration as a lobbyist for Lockheed Martin ended, Sturgeon was selected as the Conservative candidate in January.

Lockheed Martin has won a number of contracts with DND over the years, but the big one that has proven to be a divisive issue on Parliament Hill is the F-35 fighter jet deal — the largest military procurement in Canada's history.

Michael Forrestall claimed that Raymond Sturgeon was also involved with lobbying Ballard Power Systems and the purchase of Sea King Helicopters. But of course the CONservatives once again pulled the Privacy act card and refused to answer the question. Deja vu. Didn't they also hide and black out most of the documents that tied them to torture in Afghanistan over a claim of national defense privacy?

Lost: Honest transparent government.

Meanwhile back on the campaign trail Harper is kissing babies and handing out free candy. Well not exactly. He's handing out IOU's for free candy. He's promising he'll reduce taxes for families at some later date in the future while he posed with a family and their children. Tell ya what. Instead of handing out free candy during an election only to rip away the bread and butter from working families across the country, keep your tax break. If we have a budget surplus, stop the HST and keep lowering the GST until it hits zero. That is what's best for all of Canada.

BTW US sources claim the jets cost more like $100 million each. Why did the Harper government refuse to tell the real cost to the House when it was supposed to be debated? That's not very... honest.

By kaniamazdar with No comments