I could go on and on.

Evidently you already have. Although, just becuase someone doesn't happen to agree with your assessment of the situation, doesn't mean they are lying. Additionally, just because someone also doesn't happen to share your sense of priority, doesn't necessarily make them wrong. First, you state that the USA and the UK ship their tanks overseas rather than flying them. Currently, I do not believe that the Canadian Forces have the ships with which to accomplish such a feat. As such, do you think we should have purchased warships instead? No? What other means would an independant Canadian Military employ then? What other aircraft, other than the C-17's would be capable of that. You'll notice that I said Independant Canadian Military. In order for us to be truly soverign, our armed forces must be independant and capable of mobilizing our assets without the need to rely on foreign resources in order to do so. Whether you agree with that or not is entirely irrelevant. It's simply a fact of sovreignty. Then there is the issue of Candian Content. Boeing built the C-17's. I would presume that the government followed guidelines when it came to Canadian Content in Canadian Contract Bids. How many of the other priorities you listed are built in Canada? (I ask that honestly because I don't know.) And then how much of the money we spent on the C-17's (and over the course of their lifetimes) will be injected into a Canadian Economy rather than a foreign one? How many Canadian Jobs were created/maintained because of this purchase decision? No, I'd rather shop Canadian and spend more, then rent foreign and send the money OUT of our economy.