Supporters of Canada’s F-35 purchase point to the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts that Canadian companies have earned by supplying parts for the U.S. aircraft. That, in turn, has sustained or created Canadian aerospace jobs. But on Feb. 28, the National Post reported that Trump has told Lockheed Martin he wants those jobs back in the U.S. when the Canadian contracts come up for renewal.
During the 2015 election campaign, Justin Trudeau vowed his government would never purchase the F-35.
As prime minister, Trudeau continued to point out the Canadian military had no need for the F-35 and he blamed the Conservatives for agreeing to purchase a problem-plagued fighter jet. But, with the 2023 announcement, the Liberals not only committed to the acquisition, but also increased the number of jets to be bought to 88 from the 65 the Conservatives had wanted.
The problem is that in the event of a conflict with the US, those jets would be entirely unusable because they’d shut them down. And we’d be billions of dollars down.
It would be better to spend that money elsewhere, even if it’s out of date, than to have nothing.
Pretty sure we couldn’t buy enough of anything to make a difference against the US in even the long term. Except nukes. Those are the only feasible deterrents we could use.
