In a dangerous world, Canada can’t avoid the need to spend billions of dollars upgrading our severely underfunded military. But that doesn’t mean letting the Liberal government off the hook for their rampant incompetence.
The Liberal government has now made it official:
Canada has signed a contract to purchase the F-35 fighter jet.
Today, I announced that Canada is acquiring a new fleet of 88 F-35 fighter jets. This project is estimated at $19 billion – making it the largest investment in our @RCAF_ARC in three decades. This project will ensure that our aviators have the tools they need to defend Canada. pic.twitter.com/4qbaT3vC1B
— Anita Anand (@AnitaAnandMP) January 9, 2023
All the way back in 2017, I said Canada should buy the F-35 and be done with all the needless delays:
Canada’s long wait in signing the F-35 contract is a disgrace.
It comes down to a lack of will from the previous CPC government, which gave in to Liberal criticism and didn’t finish the deal, and then the incompetence/mendacity of Justin Trudeau who spent over five years making the F-35 a political issue.
Trudeau campaigned against the F-35, slammed the Conservatives for planning to buy it, and then said Canada would not buy the plane when he took office.
The country has since spent years stuck attempting to buy alternatives, including the F-18 Super Hornet, and a plan to buy Australia’s old cast-off F-18s to replace our old F-18s – an idea as foolish as it sounds.
But in the end, Canada will end up doing what we could have done a decade ago:
Buy the F-35.
As a result, Canada is paying much more than we would have otherwise.
The full cost of the program over the long-run will be about $70 billion, though it will likely be even more given the fact that every procurement/maintenance program in the Canadian military goes over budget.
As unfortunate as this is, Canada really doesn’t have much of a choice.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, combined with the increasing military spending of China – and both Russia and China are seeking to build up in the Arctic – means that we need to spend on our military and we need to do so now.
In fact, our country should be freezing spending in all other government departments in order to create fiscal room for military spending, to make up for the many years of significant underfunding.
The world is simply too dangerous for Canada to ‘hope for the best.’
Sometimes, there is no way around the reality that military power is needed to support our allies and dissuade the expansionist authoritarian states of China & Russia.
With all of this in mind, we should still be holding the Liberal government accountable for their incompetence.
We won’t be getting F-35s until 2026, and the full purchase will only be completed in the 2030’s.
That creates a significant strategic weakness, meaning we will need to depend more on our allies rather than pulling our own weight.
The political games and naivety of the Liberals have left Canada in a weaker and more vulnerable position.
Even as we wait for F-35s, there is far more we could be doing to build up our defenses, including focusing on working with our allies on advanced hypersonic missiles, while also supplementing our tank, infantry, and drone forces.
And most importantly, we should stop demonizing Canadian history.
Why would people want to sign up when the Liberal government calls Canada a ‘genocidal state’ and casts Canadian history in a completely negative light.
We should be promoting pride in Canada – including our long history of standing up for human rights & individual freedoms along with standing against both fascism and communism.
With the world heading in a dark direction, Canada can ill-afford national division and demoralization.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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