Bourbon & Bullets

Canada is not seen by the wider world as a corrupt place to do business. It is in fact probably one of the most corrupt of the western industrialized democracies, and all the more so because no one doing business with Canadian companies or government expect it. Sweetheart deals for local companies at the local government level is perhaps par for the course wherever you are in the world, at any rate it is certainly the norm, from what I've seen, in Canada. I have also witnessed the illegal collusion of business and government at the provincial level (state level for U.S readers) and therefore see no reason to believe this magically stops at the federal level. In fact it is all too clear such corruption is rampant in Ottawa. The National Shipbuilding Strategy is a prime example. Shipbuilding companies the world over scratch their heads at Canada's approach to procuring new naval vessels, the head of French shipbuilding giant DCNS going so far to say publicly that Canada ...

The Tory government in Ottawa may have restored 'Royal' to the Royal Canadian Navy, in recognition of its proud heritage, but sadly they've done little else to support our once significant navy. Yes Canada's navy has been in terminal decline since Trudeau Sr's years. Starting with the demoralizing Unification of the armed forces in 1968, the mothballing and eventual sell off (just two years after an expensive refit) of the aircraft carrier Bonaventure, the scrapping of a cutting edge Canadian built hydrofoil, to the purchase of the (supposedly) bargain basement Upholder subs, which have proven to be anything but a bargain, the Liberal Party has long had a hand in sinking the Royal Canadian Navy. However with the election in 2006 of a new Conservative government (not Joe Clarke's NDP in disguise PCs) there was the promise of restored prestige and capability to Canada's armed forces with the navy receiving (having borne most of the previous gene...