Patriotism or Pork barreling?

It's no secret that for far too long, we've been sending our troops off to far flung destinations with less than stellar or reliable equipment. Over the years the Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force has made the best of dwindling resources and a endured a lack of interest from their political masters. In fact, the military over the years has been treated like a political pawn by the government, to be used to get out of a sticky international jam or to grease the employment wheels of some MP's riding.

The latest offering from the bureaucrats in Ottawa doesn't offer much hope that the template will change any time soon. The Canadian Army which is woefully underfunded, undermanned and under equipped, has been handed yet another setback. The Army was to receive new trucks replacing the current workhorse of the military the MLVW, they will now have to wait until 2008 before a new ride is available. That because the bureaucracy wasn't comfortable with the purchase of 1500 trucks from the US Army, fearing that the deal would not create any Canadian jobs.

Former Defence Minister John McCallum had given the green light so as to piggy back on a huge US Army order of 83,000 truck coming on line shortly. By tacking on a Canadian request for 1500 trucks, the Canadian Army would have saved 300 million dollars and replaced the trouble plagued trucks in its inventory sooner.

But now the troops will wait at least another four years before replacement trucks can be provided. The government planning on an extensive competition, open to domestic companies. And if the long running soap opera know as the Helicopter replacement program is any guideline, they had best be prepared to be using the existing trucks far into the future.

Now there's nothing wrong with buying Canadian, and indeed we should try and replace our equipment with homegrown product, whenever it's reasonable to do so. But if we're going to insist on sending our forces off on the adventures we seem to take on, we should be sure they have the best equipment available at the soonest possible time, wherever we have to buy it from. Play pork barrel politics with some other department, one where lives aren't at risk.

Sometimes common sense has to rise above political gain, especially when it comes to politicians sending the military off to do their bidding.