saturn_656 saturn_656:
You're right, I had much better things to do than sit in front of the computer and google search. My bad.
What Trudeau did to the Forces is common knowledge, he wrote off a carrier that just came out of a multi million dollar refit (thereby ending Canadian Carrier Operations for good) and the Canadian Forces in Europe atrophied to nothing more than a token force.
Sure he bought us tanks, obsolete Leo 1's despite the fact that the Leo 2 had just come on the market. That's sure a feather in his cap, buying equipment that was top of the line 15 or 20 years ago.
You credit him for giving the Forces Halifax frigates, but Trudeau had only ordered six. Mulroney had to boost the order to 12. Granted its not the 18 he had promised, still much better than Trudeau's six.
The CF-18 was a must buy, they let the Air Force fly CF-101's until the Americans had their all their 101's in museums or the boneyard. It was hopelessly obsolete years before it was replaced.
The RCAF received 75% of its eventual Herc fleet before Trudeau got into office. But I suppose I should give him credit for not chopping them into scrap like he did with HMCS Bonaventure.
That's just what I know off the top of my head, no research required.
So Trudeau is a bastard for buying us old tanks, but Mulroney ok for not buying any tanks? Rather twisted logic...
I never said Trudeau was the best, but you claimed that Mulroney was better than Chretien, when he cancelled way more projects than Chretien ever did, cut more troops and broke far more defence promises. Say what you want, but Mulroney was a total disaster for the CF. After all those election promises of him fixing up the CF that Trudeau had "broken", he didn't do much more than order some more frigates and expensive helos (which our Coast Guard is finding aren't as good as promised).
The CF-101s were bought by another Conservative PM, after he killed one of the best (and most expensive) fighters of the day, so that is hardly Trudeau's fault. The plans to buy new fighters started in the late 1970s (less than 2 decades after the CF-101s were bought) and replacement began in about 1984.
Where's your disdain for Harper? He hasn't begun replacing the CF-18s; they're older now than the CF-101s were, yet we aren't even examining options yet, just a tossing a few bucks into the JSF kitty, hoping we'll be able to buy some in a decade or so.
See, that's why many of the Conservatives here kill me. They bitch and moan about how bad Chretien was for the CF, conveniently forgetting that Mulroney was at least as bad, cancelling major fleet purchases left and right. So why is it that you complain about Trudeau changing defence priorities, but give Mulroney a pass? Could it be you are a hypocrite?
CKA Uber 
