Mulcair sides with Harper in favour of unaffordable F-35 stealth fighters

September 22, 2015

Mulcair reverses the NDP’s half decade of opposition to Harper’s bloated aircraft boondoggle

 OTTAWA – Proving once again that he will say whatever is convenient, Thomas Mulcair suddenly reversed his long-standing opposition to Harper’s F-35 boondoggle.

Known as “the jet that ate the Pentagon,” the F-35 is widely acknowledged as one of the most expensive and mismanaged military procurements in modern history. Its estimated delivery cost has ballooned each year, while questions about its capabilities have persisted throughout the process. 

 Yesterday, when asked about Justin Trudeau’s commitment to scrap plans to purchase the F-35, Mulcair went on the attack, claiming that Trudeau’s opposition to the project is evidence of his “lack of experience” – even though Mulcair and the NDP held the same position, until yesterday. 

 Mulcair went on to promise yesterday to keep the bloated F-35 program alive.

 “Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair both blasted Justin Trudeau for announcing a day earlier he would scrap the multi-billion dollar purchase of 65 F-35 stealth fighters.”
(Canadian Press, September 21, 2015)

 Beaches—York NDP MP Matt Kelway is actively campaigning against the F-35 in campaign flyers distributed in Toronto.

 Here’s what Thomas Mulcair and Jack Layton said about the F-35:
“If we don’t buy the F-35, we will have acted as prudent administrators.”
(Thomas Mulcair, December 10, 2012)

 “Mr. Speaker, in the words of one of Canada’s top defence journalists, David Pugliese, ‘it appears to be total confusion on the F-35 front in Ottawa these days’. Yet the Prime Minister still seems poised to blindly push ahead with the expensive and risky single engine F-35.”
(Thomas Mulcair, June 11, 2014)

“Instead of focusing on F-35 fighter jets, I’ll get the job done when it comes to building joint support ships for our naval forces,” he said Friday from Esquimalt, B.C.
(Jack Layton, CBC News, April 8, 2011)

 “The Canadian military should concentrate on peacekeeping and not making war, NDP Leader Jack Layton said Friday. And he said that means scrapping the $16-billion F-35 jet fighters deal along greater attention to Canada’s naval needs.”
(Toronto Star, April 8, 2011)