Comments on: Jim Prentice: Doing The Right Thing For All The Wrong Reasons http://www.thepolitic.com/archives/2008/04/15/jim-prentice-doing-the-right-thing-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/ Conservative group weblog that publishes daily commentary on political events and topics affecting Canada, the United States and the world. Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:55:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Brian http://www.thepolitic.com/archives/2008/04/15/jim-prentice-doing-the-right-thing-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/#comment-180779 Brian Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:26:28 +0000 http://www.thepolitic.com/?p=3235#comment-180779 Here is what I have posted on several other blogs about this "made-in-Canada" mess which was largely created by the Liberals , and by MDA greedily sucking in taxpayers money in the hope that they would be able to sell services to the US military. ================================= While Terence Corcoran's article gave a good historical perspective of the MDA satellite "deal" struck with the Liberal government at the time , it omitted the security aspect , which was yet another Liberal screwup with Washington. Chretien and Martin did a fine job of ensuring poor relations with the US on military and security issues. As a result of 9/11 the US does not allow foreign companies to bid on classified military/security contracts. If the Liberals had not been so anti-US Canada might have received an exemption and been allowed to bid on classified projects , but such was not the case. So now Harper has a no win situation. My personal guess is that taxpayer dollars will flow into MDA until such time as the satellite fails , and then it will be "end of story" , and more money wasted. Apparently MDA was "betting the farm" on being able to provide satellite surveillance data to the US , but as a result of 9/11 and Liberal anti-US bias , and a Liberal disdain for the military , and some "made-in-Canada" security screwups , Washington decided Canadians were a poor security risk , so now MDA is without a paying customer. In retrospect MDA should have gone to bed with France ! It is really ironic , because the Liberals were always hyping trade with France. My guess is that for a lot less than $485M , DND could have had access to France's SPOT (2.5m) surveillance satellite data , which anyone with the cash can access. http://www.spot.com/web/SICORP/449-sicorp-spot-images.php Here is what I have posted on several other blogs about this “made-in-Canada” mess which was largely created by the Liberals , and by MDA greedily sucking in taxpayers money in the hope that they would be able to sell services to the US military.

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While Terence Corcoran’s article gave a good historical perspective of the MDA satellite “deal” struck with the Liberal government at the time , it omitted the security aspect , which was yet another Liberal screwup with Washington.

Chretien and Martin did a fine job of ensuring poor relations with the US on military and security issues. As a result of 9/11 the US does not allow foreign companies to bid on classified military/security contracts. If the Liberals had not been so anti-US Canada might have received an exemption and been allowed to bid on classified projects , but such was not the case.

So now Harper has a no win situation.

My personal guess is that taxpayer dollars will flow into MDA until such time as the satellite fails , and then it will be “end of story” , and more money wasted.

Apparently MDA was “betting the farm” on being able to provide satellite surveillance data to the US , but as a result of 9/11 and Liberal anti-US bias , and a Liberal disdain for the military , and some “made-in-Canada” security screwups , Washington decided Canadians were a poor security risk , so now MDA is without a paying customer.

In retrospect MDA should have gone to bed with France ! It is really ironic , because the Liberals were always hyping trade with France.

My guess is that for a lot less than $485M , DND could have had access to France’s SPOT (2.5m) surveillance satellite data , which anyone with the cash can access.

http://www.spot.com/web/SICORP.....images.php

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