Bill Rompkey is still pushing an X band radar system for Goose Bay.
Bravo, Bill.
In this CBC Radio story, defence minister Bill Graham even says kind things about the idea, like"we'll look at it seriously."
[Psst, Mr. Harper. Pay attention to how politicians speak to local audiences before a by-election.]
Having already pumped out a raft of stuff about x band radars and Goose Bay, let me just frame up this scenario for you and see if it works for you:
The Americans haven't made a formal proposal to put anything at Goose Bay because.... well...they don't need Goose Bay.
NORAD doesn't really need an X band system at Goose Bay since they can access data from Thule and Fylingdales Moor (two BMEWS sites in Greenland and the UK).
But.....
Canada needs to be seen to be doing something for North American defence...
and...
there isn't much else they can see doing at Goose.
Therefore,
the feds will spend time and energy studying Rompkey's suggestion. If it looks like it might have an impact on the Americans or we need to give the zoomies some consolation prize for not buying new planes to fly, we'll drop the $500 million on the new facility and operate it largely ourselves through the Canadian Forces.
If it doesn't matter a row of beans, then we will at least have kept people busy thinking about the possibility of maybe building a new radar system. By that time, something might have come up for Goose Bay.