The Politics of Procurement

In 1993, Canadas Liberal Party cancelled an order to replace the Sea King maritime helicopter. The Liberals claimed the Tory plan was too expensive, but the cancellation itself actually cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The incident drew public attention to the waste in Canadas defence spending and to the under-equipped state of its military. Aaron Plamondon ties the bungled attempts to replace the Sea King before and since 1993 to the evolution of the weapons procurement process in Canada since Confederation. He reveals that partisan politics, rather than a desire to increase the militarys capabilities, has driven the nations policy-makers.