That's MY train!

If you've been watching the olympics then you've probably seen the Bombardier commercials: some Canadian tourist notices a train or plane made by Bombardier and gets excited. Then the announcer says "Thousands of Canadians are behind Bombardier, and proud of it."

That's only half the truth though. The announcer should say "Thousands of Canadians are forced to support Bombardier financially, and don't even know it." Or maybe more accurately, "Thousands of Canadians are bent over in front of Bombardier and getting..." well, you can complete the sentence yourself.

CBC's The National ran a story this evening about hundreds of Bombardier jets sitting idle in a field in Arizona. Guess who owns those jets? You do. That's right, you, your neighbour, your co-workers, every Canadian taxpayer owns a piece of those jets rusting in the desert. Here's how it works. Bombardier builds a bunch of jets that nobody wants to buy. Export Development Canada, a Federal Crown Corporation, takes billions of Canadians' tax dollars and loans it to foreign companies whom the regular banks consider "high risk" with the condition that the companies use the money to purchase the aforementioned jets from Bombardier. Now, those high risk companies have defaulted on those loans and EDC is stuck with the planes. Since EDC isn't an airline, the planes sit in the desert and collect dust.

As if that loan/bribe scenario wasn't enough, the government still routinely coughs up billions of dollars in direct subsidies to Bombardier (because they still can't seem turn a profit, even with a bribed customer base) with the excuse that the company "provides jobs". Who are they kidding? I mean come on, if the government's going to do that, then skip the middle man, give the billions directly to the workers, and send them home to be productive already!

Yes, our roads are terrible, our military is an international joke, our taxes are outrageously high, and people die waiting for health care, but still the government finds it more important to use your money to buy airplanes that don't fly.