Go to article index for other editions of Bob Orrick's IN RE (In the Matter of).
Smarts Versus Dumbs
By
Bob Orrick
News item: 40-year-old Sea King forces flagship home. 28 February 2003.
News item: Liberals win 177 seats in 1993 federal general election and form majority government. 26 October 1993.
Although separated by almost ten years, the two aforementioned items are connected. In the run-up to the October 25, 1993 federal general election, Liberal leader Jean Chretien held aloft a red book and claimed it detailed his party's agenda. [Canadians and others will recall Chairman Mao also holding aloft a red book and proclaiming it to be the future of the world, at least the Chinese Communist part of the world.] Among the many items outlined in Chretien's 'little red book,' were two items that stood out perhaps above all others. One concerned the Conservatives' implemented free trade agreement with the United States. The second one was the Liberals' resolve to cancel the previous Conservative government's helicopter deal.
Chretien and the Liberals did nothing to reverse the free trade agreement; rather, the new federal government embraced it and touted it as a job-creating tool. Interestingly, while in Opposition, the Liberals denounced free trade and mouthed negativism about the deal. In many respects, the Liberals fronted for the socialist NDP that claimed free trade would cost Canada thousands of jobs. A decade later, the NDP has been shown wrong; again.
As to the helicopter deal, Chretien cancelled it straight away. The result was that the state-of-the-art helicopters designated as replacements for the then-ageing Sea King helicopters was gone; and the upshot of that was that the Navy had to rely on machines that spent more time in the repair shop than in the air. In a manner common to the Liberals, Chretien showed his dislike for Canada's military. Today, we see the folly of that and witness the now-fossilised Sea Kings falling out of the sky.
Will the Liberals remain firmly ensconced in Ottawa? Will Canadians never learn?
To illustrate the idiocy that passes for politics and parliament in Canada, a quick check of the 1993 federal general election shows that the Liberals won 177 out of 295 seats. The Bloc, a Quebec-based party that campaigned to take Quebec out of Canada captured the position of Loyal Opposition -the government in waiting - with 54 seats. How in the name of all that is supposed to pass as common sense, can a party that has as its sole purpose the destruction of Canada be in a position of Loyal Opposition? The previous government, the Conservatives, sank into near oblivion; the once-proud party managed to win the support of voters in only two ridings. The upstart, Western-based, right-of-centre Reform nipped at the heals of the Bloc with 52 seats while the socialist NDP managed to capture nine seats. One seat was taken by an independent. What sort of a picture is this? For starters, it is a confused one.
With a party dead set on breaking up Canada as the government in waiting, and with the only party of any substance reduced to a yeoman's guard, the way was open for the Liberals to run roughshod over Parliament. The normally sensible Conservatives were virtually shut out of debate; the party was so far back that during Question Period, the time when opposition members get to grill the government, the Tories were out of the game. The Liberals chucked their opposition to free trade and tossed the helicopter deal. Nobody on the opposition benches was up to stopping the left-of-centre Liberals upholding their election promise to savage the navy. Today, even after another federal general election and a Liberal win, we see little difference.
Recently, several crewmen of HMCS Iroquois are alive thanks to the heroic efforts of their shipmates but no thanks to Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien. When the 40-year-old Sea King slammed back onto the Iroquois' deck bits and pieces of the airplane flew in several directions. The ship was on its way to the Persian Gulf to act as command-and-control vessel of a task force of up to 20 ships patrolling the Gulf and Straits of Hormuz as part of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Now, thanks to Chretien, Canada's military has been embarrassed. What did Chretien do? He put little importance on the mishap, continued his Mexican visit, and then departed Mexico for Vancouver where he handed out buckets of bucks to bolster BC's 2010 Olympic Games bid. Clearly, in the dim minds of the Liberals, a seven-year-on, two-week funfest for rich kids takes precedence over the welfare of Canada's navy. As American admiral David Glasgow Farragot [1801-70] said at the Battle of Mobile in August 1864, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien must have uttered the same words but with one slight modification. For Chretien, it must have been, "Damn the helicopters! Full speed ahead to the Olympics!"
The one thing that members of Canada's military - that is the grunts who actually do the job that the higher echelon take the credit for - can take to the bank is the knowledge that they are well-trained, dedicated, loyal Canadians. The 'smarts' among the men and women of Canada's military shine brightly and outshine the 'dumbs' of Canada's Liberal government. In a showdown, put your money on the lads and lasses who wear the uniform of Canada's military; do not waste your bucks on the nincompoops who take up space in the House of Commons.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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