An Elephant Never Forgets

If there is one issue front and center in the minds of Canadians that has the potential to break the public trust in the Conservative Government it is the proposed transfer of MacDonald Dettwiler’s Geo-Spatial Information Systems, and Services operations (Canadarm and Radarsat-2) to American owned Alliant Techsystems (ATK) for the reported amount of $1.325 billion dollars. The Government of Canada is ensuring due diligence by conducting a review of all contracts between MDA and the Canadian Space Agency and other federal departments and agencies. http://tinyurl.com/2k9gtj This proposal which was currently under Government review of all contractual, regulatory or other obligations, if acted on ran the risk of demoralizing national pride in our space contributions world wide, and promised to sink in the ship of the Harper minority government, already too close to the edge of another general election. Canadians of all stripes would have equated this perceived betrayal with that of the “Avro Arrow fiasco”. The CF-105 aircraft interceptor that the Diefenbaker Conservatives bowed and capitulated to US pressure from, canceling the program in 1959 (“Black Friday”). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Arrow Minister Prentice treads on hallowed ground thus his newly found hesitance in a question of pitfall into perdition, should he in his haste he fly like Icarus too close to the sun. This lunacy should it have been proceed on was tantamount to political suicide if those who have ears did not head the death knell beckoning. The Country’s northern sovereignty is at issue in the arctic, and it serves us no benefit to export our aerospace based research and development, at the return of monetary profits to privately owned business. Significant amounts of Government funded grants through the contributions of hard-working Canadian taxpayers are at stake here. If American investors in MDA want their fair share of the proceeds, their interests must be bought out immediately or settled in an International Court of Law. http://tinyurl.com/5auy7b