Michael Byers on Politics

B.C. election offers lessons for politicians everywhere

From advertising strategies to mobilizing young voters, politicians have a lot to learn.

Michael Byers, Toronto Star, 16 May 2012

Christy Clark’s re-election was a political shocker of seismic proportions. Nobody saw the victory coming: neither the pollsters, nor the pundits, not even the premier herself.

Across Canada, across the electoral spectrum, politicians and their advisers are scrambling to understand what occurred. Here’s an initial assessment, from my vantage point close to the front lines.

Positive campaigning is about demeanour, not substance. It’s about conveying optimism and empathy, about connecting with potential voters and inspiring them to turn out. Christy Clark did this well; Adrian Dix did not. And you never, ever, say that you’re running a positive campaign. Just do it!

Offshore patrol ships an expensive compromise

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, Victoria Times Colonist, 8 May 2013

A $288-million “definition contract” for arctic/offshore patrol ships was signed by the federal government in March. Built in Halifax, a number of these so-called “A/OPS” will be based in Esquimalt where, as a result of cost-saving compromises already made, they will be suitable neither for an Arctic role nor as patrol ships in open seas.

Minister at Sea: Peter MacKay's Latest Folly

Pricey, plodding Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships ill-fitted to their planned missions.

A/OPS: Destined to be subject of derisive maritime pub songs?

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, 24 April 2013, TheTyee.ca

Peter MacKay is no stranger to maritime pubs. He could probably recite the words of Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers while drunk and standing on his head. But does Canada's defence minister realize that he's fast becoming the 21st-century version of Elcid Barrett, who led a group of blindly ambitious men on a dangerous folly?

Canadian peacekeepers should be in Mali – It’s in our national interest

Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, 29 April 2013

The United Nations Security Council has just approved a peacekeeping mission for Mali. Canada, with decades of experience in these operations, really should take part.

Abandon ships: Harper government urged to scrap plan for Arctic patrol vessels

Murray Brewster, Canadian Press, 11 April 2013

OTTAWA - A new report by two independent think-tanks recommends the Harper government abandon its pet project to construct Arctic patrol ships for the navy.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Rideau Institute say the $4.3-billion plan has been watered down to the point where it no longer makes much sense, and the country would be better served building high-speed navy cutters and civilian icebreakers.

Passing the buck on search-and-rescue

                                                                       CC-115 Buffalo, Royal Canadian Air Force

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, National Post, 20 March 2013

Nobody likes a buck-passer. But that’s what Defence Minister Peter MacKay resembled last week, when asked about the seven-year delay in replacing Canada’s ancient fleet of fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft.

Peter MacKay: Time to Sex up Your Ride!

Rona Ambrose wants to put you in a lame Cyclone helicopter. Tell her to take off!

By Michael Byers and Stewart Webb, 21 Feb 2013, TheTyee.ca

Giving Canada the whirly bird: Defence Minister MacKay prepares for yet another taxpayer-funded flight in 2009. Photo: Defence Department files.

Honourable Peter MacKay
Minister of National Defence
Major-General George R. Pearkes Building
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K2

Dear Mr. MacKay,

What happened? As minister of national defence, defender of the realm and master of all-things-that-go-bang, you used to dominate military procurement in Canada. And you did so with real panache!

Stephen Harper struggles to regain control over military projects

The failure of Stephen Harper and his ministers to oversee military procurements allowed defence officials to go on spending sprees.

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, Toronto Star, 19 February 2013

Canada could soon have a Department of Military Procurement, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper struggles to regain control over much-delayed and increasingly expensive projects — like the effort to replace CF-18 fighter jets with F-35s.

Yet the plan for a new department misses the point. In the style of the classic BBC show, politicians have long been “Yes Ministered” by the Department of National Defence. The problem has reached new heights under Harper, who came to power believing the generals and admirals could do no wrong.

A government blunder teaches us how not to buy helicopters

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, National Post, 12 February 2013

The botched procurement of F-35 stealth fighter jets has attracted much attention, and rightly so at $40-billion and counting. But the F-35s are not the ugliest example of Defence Department incompetence. That dubious honour belongs to the Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter, which, as Defence Minister Peter MacKay himself admitted last July, is “the worst procurement in the history of Canada.”

Five decades, two contracts and still no helicopters for Canada

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, Globe and Mail, 11 February 2013

“The worst procurement in the history of Canada” was how Defence Minister Peter MacKay described the effort to replace the Navy’s Sea King helicopters in July 2012. He was right about that, and wrong not to accept some of the blame.

Mali: Canada's Return to UN Peacekeeping?

Michael Byers, TheTyee.ca , 5 February 2013

"We need action not only to end the fighting but to make the peace." -- Lester B. Pearson

Spoken by Lester B. Pearson in 1956, these words grace the side of the peacekeeping monument in Ottawa. They also provide insight into a difficult but worthwhile task that Canada may well be asked to fulfill in the West African country of Mali.

F-35: The plane that keeps on billing

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, The National Post, 30 October 2012

“If you went out and bought yourself a new minivan and you wanted to drive it off the lot, you wouldn’t calculate the gas, the washer fluid, the oil and give yourself a salary to drive it for the next 15 or 20 years.”

That was Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s response to Michael Ferguson in April, after the Auditor-General used “life-cycle costs” to calculate the full impact that buying F-35 stealth fighter jets would have on the federal treasury.

But buying an F-35 is nothing like buying a minivan. Nobody buys a new car in the expectation that key components — engine, windshield, electronics — will need to be replaced or upgraded within a few years, while still perfectly functional.

Canada’s not ready to have the World in the Arctic

Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, 15 August 2012

The World is the largest privately owned yacht on the planet. Flagged in the Bahamas, the 196-metre vessel is essentially a luxury condo complex, with 165 units valued at up to $13-million each.

Later this month, the ship will transit the Northwest Passage, at no small risk to its residents – and to Canada’s reputation as a competent coastal state.

For Search and Rescue, Canadian-made Planes are Better, Cheaper

Why did feds deny our own plane makers a chance to compete for contract?

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, TheTyee.ca , 19 June 2012

Effective search-and-rescue requires reliable modern equipment. Yet Canada's "fixed-wing" search-and-rescue aircraft -- CC-115 Buffalos on the West Coast and CC-130 Hercules in Central, Atlantic and Arctic Canada -- are more than 45 years old.

When an Inuit boy named Burton Winters became lost in a blizzard on the sea-ice off Labrador in Jan. 2012, all three search-and-rescue Hercules in Atlantic Canada were unable to deploy for mechanical reasons.

Canada Can Help Russia With Northern Sea Route

Michael Byers, The Moscow Times, 9 June 2012 

The Arctic Ocean's coastline belongs mostly to Russia and Canada, the two largest countries in the world.

Each country owns territory on either side of a series of contested, and increasingly ice-free, Arctic straits. Russia considers the narrowest parts of the Northern Sea Route to be "internal waters." Canada takes the same view of the Northwest Passage. Internal waters are not territorial waters, and foreign ships have no right to access them without permission from the coastal state.

Russia and Canada face a single, common source of opposition to their claims — namely, the United States, which insists that both the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage are "international straits."

Canada's oil-sands bonanza could mean disaster for Alaska's coastline

Canada's disregard for the impacts of selling oil sands to China will lead to the near-inevitability of another Exxon Valdez-type spill in U.S. waters

Michael Byers, Special to the Seattle Times, May 18, 2012

Twenty-three years after the Exxon Valdez spilled more than half a million barrels of oil into Prince William Sound, another threat looms over Alaska's remote and beautiful coastline — in the form of heavy oil exports from Canada to China.

A costly mistake that keeps getting costlier

Fred Thornhill/Reuters

Even now, we have no real idea what the price of each F-35 will be.

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, National Post, May 15, 2012

Debates about the costs of the F-35 stealth fighter overlook a crucial point: It is only a prototype that’s still being tested and modified.

Ghost of the Avro Arrow haunts the F-35

Avro Arrow is unveiled in 1957.

Michael Byers, Toronto Star, April 5, 2012

Stephen Harper must have felt airsick this week after Auditor General Michael Ferguson exposed gross mismanagement of the F-35 procurement process.

Much of the blame rests with Defence Minister Peter MacKay, on whose watch the errors were made. But the seeds of the F-35 debacle were sown way back in 1959 — when former Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker killed off the Avro Arrow.

Buyer beware the F-35

U.S. Navy photo courtesy Lockheed Martin

When attrition through accidents is factored in, we could end up with an available fleet of just 30-35 F-35s.

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb, National Post, March 29, 2012

The sorry tale of the F-35 stealth fighter jets just got worse, and not because Auditor General Michael Ferguson is issuing a report on the Department of National Defence’s procurement process next week. For it has emerged that F-35s suffer from — believe it or not — flaky skin.

You can’t replace real icebreakers

Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, March 27, 2012

A rugged little ship adorns the back of the new $50 bill that the Bank of Canada began circulating Monday. But, in an ironic twist of fate, the red and white CCGS Amundsen no longer sails the Arctic seas.