Most people associate chinooks with the winter, but news reports have been full of stories about the impending purchase of Chinook helicopters.
Today, the federal government announced it would be spending over $4 billion to purchase 16 heavy-lift helicopters. (The actual costs work out to about $2 billion for the 16 helicopters and $2.7 billion for 20 years of support.)
The ironic thing is that Canada used to fly the Chinook. 447 Squadron used to fly the big helicopter out of Edmonton from 1979 until they were retired in 1991 because the Canadian Forces could not afford to operate them. They were sold to one of our NATO allied (the Netherlands, I think) and Canada has been without big choppers ever since.
I am glad to see that the politicians in Ottawa are willing to invest in equipment for our armed forces. Not only with the Chinooks be of value in war zones like Afghanistan -- they will also be useful in cases of natural disasters like floods or blizzards or hurricanes.
