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Canadian Defence Procurement — updated and revised January 2004
Politics, Procurement Practices, and Procrastination:
the Quarter-Century Sea King Helicopter
Replacement Saga
Part 11 — Out With the Old,
Out With the New: the 1993 Federal Election
In 1993 the Tories received one of the most bone-crunching electoral defeats in Canadian political history. A
decade had passed since those first Tory Sea King replacement contracts were issued. Yet the Mulroney
Conservatives had little to show for it. Worse, they’d signed NSA contracts with Paramax and EH Industries
which they expected the newly-elected Liberals to honour. Since Prime Minister- elect Jean Chrétien
had bitterly attacked their choice of helicopter, this was naïve at best on the part of the Tories. More
likely, the NSA was a political trip-wire left behind by the trounced Tories. And, Chrétien’s
Liberals walked straight into it.
NSA Aftermath of the 1993 Election — Toodle-Pipsky Petrel, Cheerio Chimo
As promised during the ’93 election, Jean Chrétien immediately cancelled the NSA orders.
Breaking contracts with EH Industries at this late stage cost the tax-payers of Canada half a Billion dollars
in cancellation fees. But , Chrétien argued , in the EH-101 DND had ordered a “Cadillac” of a
helicopter “not based on the new reality of the Cold War being over”. Badly worded perhaps, but the
new Liberal Prime Minister did have a point. The Berlin Wall had come down and the Soviet Union
did break up. Whose submarines, exactly, were the DND planners expecting to ferret out?
Half a Billion Here, Half a Billion There – Soon You’re Talking Real Money !
So, why was Jean Chrétien so bent out of shape over the NSA? Was it a political necessity? Had this
former Leader of the Opposition talked himself into a corner that he simply couldn’t manoeuvre out of ?
It’s doubtful. Yet for some reason we can only speculate about, the NSA had become highly personal
for Chrétien. [1]
However, those crotchety Sea Kings still needed replacing and
the CH-148 Petrel and CH-149 Chimo were the birds-in-hand
– regardless of any ‘Cadillac’ qualities. Chrétien has been rightly blamed for financial losses
incurred by his cancelling of the EH-101 contracts. But, were there really no other – more reasonable
– options left open at that point for the politicians, DND planners, or defence industry?
[1] The NSA purchase had been a high-profile election issue. But then, so were Chrétien’s
promises to tear up the Free Trade Agreement and eliminate the GST. Those FTA/GST pledges probably caught the
attention of more voters but were abandoned by Chrétien nonetheless – the Liberal’s
Red Book notwithstanding.
< Part 10 — Contracts for the NSA ...
‘Buy Now! Do Not Pay Until 1995!’
> Part 12 — Going ‘Green’:
Unexamined Option for Shipboard Helicopters
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