The jet mess

Re: Liberals’ jet mess is foul and dispiriting, Editorial, Dec. 16 Prime Minister Trudeau crossed the line when he let his personal pique against Boeing deny Canada’ s Armed Forces the firstclass equipment it needs to safely defend our country and fobbed them off with discarded Australian aircraft that will further delay acquiring the generation of fighters that we truly require. His rush to Bombardier’s defence, no longer needed since Airbus and Delta have already done so, is in marked contrast to his feeble acceptance of president Barack Obama’s quashing of the Keystone XL pipeline for no valid reason and then rewarding the U.S. A. by importing U.S. oil to replace the Canadian product that his misguided policies have throttled.

Play personal politics with pot Mr. Trudeau, not with the lives of our aircrews and the safety of our country. Donald McKay, Calgary I would suggest that any Canadian — including those in the government — who feels we should saddle our hard- working Air Force with outdated equipment that could cause unforeseen problems, not to mention serious accidents and fatalities, is not thinking clearly, and is being negligent.

An article in the National Post mentioned the fact that the government is proposing an open competition starting in 2019 for replacement jets needed for the long term.

This could include the Lockheed Martin F35 but t here are other options apart from American product, i ncluding BAE’s Typhoon, Saab’s Gripen and Dassault’s Rafaele. All of these aircraft are reputedly capable of competing with the F35. An added advantage is that all the European aircraft are in production and have not been subject to the abysmal delays and cost overruns that have plagued the F35 program.

Put it on the table and let all Canadians see what’s on offer. Peter Louch, Toronto