We visited Banff last September and remember reading about what bad decisions Chretien has made in regards to the military and the Sea Kings in the Sun satire sung to Seasons in the Sun:
Sea Kings in the Sun
Goodbye papa please pray for me
My helicopter's crashing in the sea
I honestly don't mean to pout,
but my future is in doubt,
My co-pilot just fell out.
Goodbye papa it's hard to fly,
When my airframe is cracking in the sky,
For every hour in the air,
it takes them 30 to repair,
We fly these things on a dare.
We've had joy, we've had fun,
We've had Sea Kings in the sun,
But the engines are on fire,
and the Sea Kings must retire,
Goodbye Chretien my stingy one,
You could have bought the EH-101,
Instead you blew 500 mil,
Just to cancel out the bill,
Now I need an airsick pill.
We've had joy, we've had fun,
We've had Sea Kings in the sun
We'll be lucky if we reach,
a crash landing on the beach.
Canadian Pilots Sing Protest Song Over Choppers
OTTAWA (Reuters) - While their aging helicopters may hover on the verge of calamity, the creative powers of Canada's air force pilots are soaring.
Earlier this month they created fake recruiting posters to protest the government's failure to replace their creaking, 40-year-old Sea King helicopters. Now they have devised a dark ditty to bemoan their fate.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday that the song -- a parody of the 1970s pop hit "Seasons in the Sun" -- was making the rounds of military bases by e-mail.
The ballad begins with the words, "Goodbye papa, please pray for me/ My helicopter's crashing in the sea," before reaching a chorus of, "We had joy, we had fun, we had Sea Kings in the sun/ but the engines are on fire and the Sea Kings must retire."
Each Sea King requires more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour it spends in the air. Ottawa purchased 41 Sea Kings in 1961 and since then 12 have crashed, killing eight people.
A spokesman for the main Sea King base in the Atlantic town of Shearwater said the pilots had a good sense of black humor.
Plans to replace the helicopters have floundered amid accusations of dirty tricks and political favoritism, and the Sea Kings are unlikely to be replaced until July 2006 at the earliest.
I have several friends in Canada one (his name is Ron) sent me the following in an e-mail (we trade funny stories about our respective countries all the time)
Top ten reasons why Canada will not fight in Iraq:
10. We have no way of getting there.
9. We are too busy at home with the Maple Syrup Season.
8. After 136 Years, we are still copying off France.
7. Saddam's name pronounced backwards is "Mad Ass". We'll stay away from him THANK YOU.
6. There is only limited potential for sales of Canadian Bacon in Iraq after the war.
5. Our Sea King Helicopter was damaged and needs repairs.
4. Celine Dion can't sing to the troops because she has a contract in Las Vegas.
3. The Rivers in Iraq are too shallow for our War Canoes.
2. Lousy hockey in Iraq at this time of year.
1. Our army is needed at home in case of another snowstorm in Toronto.