Conservative candidate lobbied for firm selling F-35s

The Toronto Star:

Ottawa — A Conservative candidate in Ontario lobbied for a firm that is selling Canada a fleet of controversial fighter jets whose disputed cost helped spark the election, the Toronto Star has learned.

Raymond Sturgeon, who is trying to unseat the New Democrats in the northern Ontario riding of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, had a long and distinguished career in the Canadian Forces both as a soldier and civilian, before taking up his most recent position.

He is currently employed by CFN Consultants, an Ottawa-based firm that is considered to be the home of the country’s premiere defence lobbyists. Up until last December, Sturgeon was listed as a paid representatives of more than half a dozen companies seeking to sell equipment, weapons and aircraft to the Department of National Defence.

Those companies include Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Colt Canada Corp., Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., General Dynamics and Rheinmetall Canada, according to federal government records.

Lockheed Martin has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to produce the F-35 Lightning stealth fighter jet, which the Conservative government hopes to sign a contract for in 2014 and begin receiving two years later.

The Liberals got a boost in the final weeks of the last parliamentary session from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, whose cost analysis of the fighter jet program came up with a price tag of $29.3 billion.

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