Jean Chretien took a lot of heat in the blogosphere as a result of his comments about the 9/11 attack. Well-deserved heat. But if you thought that was as low as he could go, you don't know him. Dis is da guy who blew off a visit to New York in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 so he could attend a Liberal Party fundraising dinner - then lied about not being invited.
Now, this is also the the man whose government killed funding for new helicopters to replace our 40-year old Sea Kings. They are manifestly unsafe, and a hazard to the crews flying them. But the contract was put out by a previous government, and he'd rather endanger kids' lives than lose face by doing something about it.
With me so far? Good. Keep reading.
This man took $100 million out of a defence budget with an unfunded operating liability of over $1 billion to start with (in other words, that is $1 billion behind even its inadequately budgeted operational needs), to buy himself two new luxury jets. Why? Because he says his old one was unsafe.
"Despicable" isn't a word I use very often. But it's the only one that fits here.
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