Canadians tangled in web of hypocrisy

Latest twist in the General Dynamics "Canadian" $15B armoured vehicle sale to the KSA is that we're trying to get out of it.

There's a couple of salient features about Canada's ruling class that you should take note of as this fake drama unfolds.

Trudeau's gradual seeing of the light, that this deal has stunk to the heavens all along, is purely a response to the bad PR the story is generating. Trudeau wants to win an election next year. He has to balance the negative PR of dis-employing 2,000 General Dynamics workers in London, with the possibly even more negative PR of following through on the deal. Either way, his image is drowning in negativity just as he's coming up for re-election.

Desperate measures are surely called for.

Let's take a look at what was, at the time, ballyhooed as our biggest export "win" in history! The Harper Gang were pee-your-pants euphoric over what they'd achieved!

Canada didn't actually sell Saudi Arabia anything. This is a commercial deal between the US defence contractor General Dynamics and the government of Saudi Arabia. All Canada did was approve the deal, as it was expected to do, because the particular plant where those vehicles are assembled happens to be a GD branch plant in Canada.

Any attempt to abrogate the deal now will be horrendously expensive, and not just in the billions of dollars.

We have the rule of law in this country, as PM Fluffy has been reminding every TV camera in sight ever since the Huawei debacle hit the headlines. We can't go meddling around in stuff for purely political reasons...


Oops!

Let's not forget that the decision to render Canada a branch plant economy was taken by Canada's political class, who saw their personal interests more closely aligned with those of their betters in Washington than with working people in Canada. We've been paying the price for that since the days of the Avro Arrow.

Poor Fluffy is doubly flumoxed because this drama is unfolding against a backdrop of severe instability in the KSA. It's a power struggle between the old guard and the "reformer" MBS.  Washington's deep state are with the old guard. Better the devil you know...

Whereas Trump is backing, at least so far, this young whippersnapper who is a little "off the leash," as they say, not unlike Trump himself.

There's no happy ending possible here.


I wouldn't want to be Justin.