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How Saudi Arabia, and a $15B armoured vehicle deal, became an election issue

September 26, 2015

How Saudi Arabia, and a $15B armoured vehicle deal, became an election issue

Government says contract will create and sustain 3,000 jobs

Niqabs, the economy, national unity — all issues that predictably came up in Thursday night’s French-language debate.

But few had forecast that Canada’s relations with Saudi Arabia, and specifically, a multibillion-dollar contract to sell armoured vehicles to the country, would erupt as an issue. It made for one of the more interesting exchanges of the night, and a reprieve for debate watchers tiring of the party leaders covering the same old ground.

The issue of whether Canada should be involved in such a deal with a country with a poor human rights record carried forward Friday. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, as he did the night before, defended the $15-billion deal that Canada helped secure last year, under which the London, Ont.-based manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems will sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

At a campaign stop in Rivière-du-Loup, Que., Harper was asked whether he was putting Canadian jobs ahead of human rights concerns.

“As I’ve said in the debate, it’s frankly all of our partners and allies who were pursuing that contract, not just Canada. So this is a deal frankly with a country, and notwithstanding its human rights violations, which are significant, this is a contract with a country that is an ally in the fighting against the Islamic State. A contract that any one of our allies would have signed,” he said.

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