Conservatives lied about F-35s

The Vancouver Sun:

So that's it then: They knew and they lied. To Parliament. To all of us.

If Auditor-General Michael Ferguson's word is to be believed - and there is no reason to think that it isn't - then the federal cabinet and by extension the prime minister, and not just the anonymous gnomes in the Department of National Defence, are directly on the hook for the F-35 boondoggle, in the most egregious sense.

They knew before the 2011 federal election that the jets would cost billions more than had been stated by DND - at least $10 billion more, around $25.1 billion. They allowed the department to publicly state they would cost $14.7 billion.

"I can't speak to individuals who knew it, but it was information that was prepared by National Defence," Ferguson told reporters Thursday. "It's certainly my understanding that that would have been information that, yes, the government would have had."

He continued: "That $25 billion number was something I think that at that time was known to government." And, critically: "It would have been primarily members of the executive, yes."

So, this is no longer a matter of "it happened on their watch." It's a matter of whether there was outright deception, deliberate and premeditated, during an election campaign, on an issue of great national import, by the prime minister and members of the cabinet.

Again, if the auditor-general is to be believed - one has to qualify, so explosive are his remarks - then the Harper government's credibility is in tatters, as is the prime minister's personal credibility. With more than three years to run in their mandate, the Tories have driven the bus into a concrete wall of their own making.

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