Seems Canadian politicians always get into scandals about helicopters,
airplanes, and other aircraft. I'm looking for four examples (at least
one should be more than 25 or so years old) where Canadian politicians
have been embroiled in a scandal about aircraft. Provincial
politicians okay as well.
I'm pricing this higher than usual because I require the answer by
12:30 PM Eastern time.

Hello again Jhabley,

I will post my findings here and if I come across additional aircraft
scandals in the next half hour I will post them for you.

=========================
EH-101 Helicopter Debacle
=========================

?In 1993 the Liberal paid $500 million to cancel the $5.8 billion
acquisition of 43 EH-101 helicopters to replace the 1960s vintage Sea
Kings and the Labrador fleet.
All 43 would have been delivered by 2003. 
The 15 Labradors have been replaced with the $790 million Cormorant deal. 
Delaying the Sea King replacement has meant soaring maintenance costs
and frequently grounded copters --$60 million per year to maintain the
Sea Kings; 30 ? 40 hours of maintenance for every 1-hour of flying
time.
The latest boondoggle on the replacement of the Sea King with less
effective helicopters has been the splitting of the procurement into
two parts and then revising the decision to do a one step procurement
wasting more taxpayer money on poor decision making.?
Source: Canadian Alliance
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp


EH101 helicopter contract
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:u2uuQ14PacQJ:www.aviationtoday.com/reports/rotorwing/previous/0103/0103paris.htm+site:www.aviationtoday.com+helicopter+scandal+in+canada&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

============================ 
$100 million Challenger Jets
============================ 

?Liberals purchased 2 new Challenger jets to add to its political
fleet for $100 million at a time when the military is in desperate
need of Sea King replacements.
The new jets replaced two 19-year old jets that had a reliability rate
of 99.18% while our Forces fly in dangerously old 40-year old Sea
Kings.?

Source: Canadian Alliance
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp

?Mr. Gerry Ritz (Battlefords?Lloydminster, Canadian Alliance): Mr.
Speaker, Shandong Airlines of China ordered four 604 Challenger jets
from Bombardier for $100 million. Shandong cancelled two of those jets
and then the Prime Minister bought them, two of them, for $100
million, twice the price. It is lucky for taxpayers Shandong did not
cancel all four.?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/006_2002-10-07/han006_1435-E.htm

?We start with the two new Challenger jets to fly the Prime Minister
and cabinet ministers around. They were paid out of DND funds, even
though the department itself advised that there were no problems with
the existing aircraft.Given the difficulty the military has had in
keeping its 40-year-old Sea Kings and Hercules transport planes in the
air and the problems that have been identified with the CF-18 fleet,
the Challenger jet purchase is an example of Liberal ministers putting
their own comfort ahead of the safety and effectiveness of Canadians
troops. The unnecessary jets are being purchased from where?
Bombardier, a huge Liberal donor.?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/021_2002-11-04/han021_1315-E.htm

Pearson Airport

?Red Book promise to cancel the $750 million privatisation deal
resulted in a cost of at least $60 million, which was paid out in the
form of damages and legal cost and does not include the legal cost
incurred by the Liberal government or massive economic loss due to
slowed air traffic at Pearson.?
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp

?They breached a signed contract in the Pearson Airport scandal. They
denied compensation to the wronged parties. Then they were forced to
pay $60-million in damages only taxpayers money.?
http://jamesbredin.tripod.com/numberfour/id38.html


Here's one from 1959

Worst political scandal:
The scrapping of the Avro Arrow. In 1959, Avro Aircraft of Malton was
building a combat plane which the US Defense Department called "the
most advanced aircraft of its time". However, Prime Minister John
Diefenbaker stopped it and ordered everything destroyed. Most
Canadians believe that he gave into US pressure, as they had invested
in a compatible, though inferior, project. This made Canadians once
again question our sovereignty!
http://www.bootsnall.com/namericatravelguides/ontario/dec99ontario.shtml


Airbus Fiasco
http://www.canadiangrassroots.ca/sections.php?op=printpage&artid=2933


Search criteria:
Canadian aircraft OR airplane OR helicopter scandal
Trudeau aircraft OR airplane OR helicopter scandal
politician scandal aircraft OR airplane site:.ca

As I said, I'll get back to you if I come across additional examples
in the next half hour.


Best regards,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 02 Dec 2003 09:27 PST

The airbus fiasco appears to have started in 1988.

"The letter alleged that Mulroney received kickbacks in the 1988 sale
of 34 Airbus jets to Air Canada, which at the time was government-run.
The $1.8 billion sale of the Airbus A-320 jetliners was the largest
purchase in Canadian civil aviation history and came after heated
competition between Airbus and the Boeing Co. of Seattle."
http://temagami.carleton.ca/jmc/cnews/22101999/c2.htm#brian

Very nice work and within my impossibly tight deadline. Bobbie7
remains one of the best researchers on this system!

Hi Jhabley!

I found two aircraft related scandals. I will post them as a comment 
for now  since you need the information as soon as possible.

If you are interested in the partial information that I was able to
locate, you could lower the price of your question accordingly.

(You can change the price by going to "My Account,"
selecting "My Unanswered Questions", clicking on the question, and
then clicking on "Change Question Parameters" to modify the pricing.)

Thanks,

Bobbie7


=========================
EH-101 Helicopter Debacle
=========================

?In 1993 the Liberal paid $500 million to cancel the $5.8 billion
acquisition of 43 EH-101 helicopters to replace the 1960s vintage Sea
Kings and the Labrador fleet.
All 43 would have been delivered by 2003. 
The 15 Labradors have been replaced with the $790 million Cormorant deal. 
Delaying the Sea King replacement has meant soaring maintenance costs
and frequently grounded copters --$60 million per year to maintain the
Sea Kings; 30 ? 40 hours of maintenance for every 1-hour of flying
time.
The latest boondoggle on the replacement of the Sea King with less
effective helicopters has been the splitting of the procurement into
two parts and then revising the decision to do a one step procurement
wasting more taxpayer money on poor decision making.?
Source: Canadian Alliance
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp


EH101 helicopter contract
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:u2uuQ14PacQJ:www.aviationtoday.com/reports/rotorwing/previous/0103/0103paris.htm+site:www.aviationtoday.com+helicopter+scandal+in+canada&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

============================ 
$100 million Challenger Jets
============================ 

?Liberals purchased 2 new Challenger jets to add to its political
fleet for $100 million at a time when the military is in desperate
need of Sea King replacements.
The new jets replaced two 19-year old jets that had a reliability rate
of 99.18% while our Forces fly in dangerously old 40-year old Sea
Kings.?

Source: Canadian Alliance
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp

?Mr. Gerry Ritz (Battlefords?Lloydminster, Canadian Alliance): Mr.
Speaker, Shandong Airlines of China ordered four 604 Challenger jets
from Bombardier for $100 million. Shandong cancelled two of those jets
and then the Prime Minister bought them, two of them, for $100
million, twice the price. It is lucky for taxpayers Shandong did not
cancel all four.?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/006_2002-10-07/han006_1435-E.htm

?We start with the two new Challenger jets to fly the Prime Minister
and cabinet ministers around. They were paid out of DND funds, even
though the department itself advised that there were no problems with
the existing aircraft.Given the difficulty the military has had in
keeping its 40-year-old Sea Kings and Hercules transport planes in the
air and the problems that have been identified with the CF-18 fleet,
the Challenger jet purchase is an example of Liberal ministers putting
their own comfort ahead of the safety and effectiveness of Canadians
troops. The unnecessary jets are being purchased from where?
Bombardier, a huge Liberal donor.?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/021_2002-11-04/han021_1315-E.htm

Here's another one:

Pearson Airport

?Red Book promise to cancel the $750 million privatisation deal
resulted in a cost of at least $60 million, which was paid out in the
form of damages and legal cost and does not include the legal cost
incurred by the Liberal government or massive economic loss due to
slowed air traffic at Pearson.?
https://www.canadianalliance.ca/english/pm/LibBoondoggles.asp

?They breached a signed contract in the Pearson Airport scandal. They
denied compensation to the wronged parties. Then they were forced to
pay $60-million in damages only taxpayers money.?
http://jamesbredin.tripod.com/numberfour/id38.html

Airbus Fiasco
http://www.canadiangrassroots.ca/sections.php?op=printpage&artid=2933

Thanks Bobbie --is that latest one fairly old? there's no date on
it... is it more than 25 years in the past?

Here's one from 1959

Worst political scandal:
The scrapping of the Avro Arrow. In 1959, Avro Aircraft of Malton was
building a combat plane which the US Defense Department called "the
most advanced aircraft of its time". However, Prime Minister John
Diefenbaker stopped it and ordered everything destroyed. Most
Canadians believe that he gave into US pressure, as they had invested
in a compatible, though inferior, project. This made Canadians once
again question our sovereignty!
http://www.bootsnall.com/namericatravelguides/ontario/dec99ontario.shtml

That's good enough for me! Thanks Bobbie -- consider it answered! If
you run across any other historical ones in the next 15-30 minutes,
I'd love to see them too, but this is formally good enough. :)

Dear Jhabley,

Thank you for your very kind words and five star rating!

--Bobbie