nationalpost: Political reality may force Tories to change broken record routine on F-35When it comes to the F-35 fighter jet purchase, the Harper government has become so well-versed in the art of denial, it can’t say yes.The Pentagon said Monday it will cancel 13 of the Lockheed Martin strike fighters to save $1.6-billion next year. It also proposed delaying the purchase of 179 F-35s beyond 2017 to save billions moreYet, amid the wavering of our allies, the song from Julian Fantino, the Associate Minister of Defence, has remained the same. Canada’s plan is on course, there has been no increase in price and anyone who says otherwise isn’t willing to give the men and women in the military the tools they need.
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nationalpost:

Political reality may force Tories to change broken record routine on F-35
When it comes to the F-35 fighter jet purchase, the Harper government has become so well-versed in the art of denial, it can’t say yes.

The Pentagon said Monday it will cancel 13 of the Lockheed Martin strike fighters to save $1.6-billion next year. It also proposed delaying the purchase of 179 F-35s beyond 2017 to save billions more

Yet, amid the wavering of our allies, the song from Julian Fantino, the Associate Minister of Defence, has remained the same. Canada’s plan is on course, there has been no increase in price and anyone who says otherwise isn’t willing to give the men and women in the military the tools they need.

nationalpost: Andrew Coyne: Stephen Harper’s long overdue talk about Canada’s pension crisisAt last, the hidden agenda, and not a moment too soon. Vague, indirect and overseas as it was, Stephen Harper’s Davos speech was perilously close to a vision statement, of a kind the prime minister has seldom made until now, and will henceforth have to make often.It would be nice if he had shared with us his concerns about the ageing of the population, and the threat it poses to our long-run social and economic health, sometime before the last election, rather than joining in the all-party consensus that there was nothing wrong with Canada that could not be fixed with more and richer promises to the elderly.Instead, we are now past the Tories’ sixth anniversary in power and the conversation, judging by the shocked reaction to the prime minister’s speech, has barely begun. Fine: let us at least hope it now continues. Because things are about to get real in a hurry, and it is long since time we did the same.
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nationalpost:

Andrew Coyne: Stephen Harper’s long overdue talk about Canada’s pension crisis
At last, the hidden agenda, and not a moment too soon. Vague, indirect and overseas as it was, Stephen Harper’s Davos speech was perilously close to a vision statement, of a kind the prime minister has seldom made until now, and will henceforth have to make often.

It would be nice if he had shared with us his concerns about the ageing of the population, and the threat it poses to our long-run social and economic health, sometime before the last election, rather than joining in the all-party consensus that there was nothing wrong with Canada that could not be fixed with more and richer promises to the elderly.

Instead, we are now past the Tories’ sixth anniversary in power and the conversation, judging by the shocked reaction to the prime minister’s speech, has barely begun. Fine: let us at least hope it now continues. Because things are about to get real in a hurry, and it is long since time we did the same.

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