The Trudeau government has just vindicated Stephen Harper’s government seven years late. Canada will therefore buy F-35 fighter jets to replace the old CF-18s.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
In fact, our planes were so old that, between 2019 and 2021, it was necessary to buy 18 used fighters – in National Defense jargon, they were modestly called “provisional fighters” – from Australia to have a minimum functional aircraft.
But these delays and procrastination every time it comes to renewing the equipment of the Canadian Forces are part of the DNA of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Virtually every time you want to make a major – and costly – purchase of military equipment, the Liberals do everything to delay the process, including canceling the contracts signed by the previous government, and finally only proceed when the equipment has become totally old and dangerous for their crews.
It was in 1977 that the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau began the process of replacing Canada’s fighter jets, with previous aircraft dating back in some cases to the 1950s.
The case quickly took a political turn and even one of national unity. The two finalist planes were the F-16 from General Dynamics and the F-18 from McDonnell Douglas, while the economic spin-offs in Canada aroused all kinds of envy.
General Dynamics had played the Quebec fallout card to the hilt, which in the months leading up to the 1980 referendum was certain to provoke heated political debate. But the Canadian government was still going to favor the F-18 (now CF-18 in its Canadian version), which was more compatible with NATO equipment, especially that of the Americans.
As early as 1997, Jean Chrétien’s government opened the file on the long process of replacing the CF-18s. But it was not to be completed until July 2010 under Stephen Harper, who chose the CF-35 – the same aircraft the current government has just ordered.
But if Justin Trudeau is willing today to buy the CF-35s, he has not always been of this opinion.
It is true that the process leading to the contract to purchase the CF-35s was sometimes questionable – especially since it had been awarded without a call for tenders – and that the aircraft itself was the subject of much criticism.
However, throughout the process, the Liberals promised to tear up the contract. That’s what Michael Ignatieff said during the 2011 election campaign, that’s what Justin Trudeau repeated in 2015.
Today, Mr. Trudeau goes back on his election promise of 2015 and decides to do precisely what Mr. Harper had decided in… 2010. A detour of more than a decade to achieve the same result.
In fact, this story bears a strong resemblance to another such fiasco, when Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government decided to replace the Sea King helicopters that had entered service in 1963 and placed an order for 35 and then 50 EH-helicopters. 101 in the amount of $5.8 billion, which caused controversy at a time when the federal deficit was very high.
Kim Campbell, who became Prime Minister, reduced the bill somewhat to 4.4 billion. But Liberal leader Jean Chrétien decided to make it an election issue.
These aircraft were Cadillacs, said Mr. Chrétien, which were not needed in those years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
Throughout the 1993 election campaign, he said in almost every speech he was going to tear up the contract. “I am going to write: zero helicopters, signed Chrétien,” he said. What he did after his election, even if it meant paying a penalty of 500 million dollars.
Mr. Chrétien will oppose any purchase of new helicopters throughout his tenure, even after the entire fleet was grounded after a crash. It was his successor, Paul Martin, who finally gave the green light to replacing the Sea Kings.
Once again, more than a decade had been lost simply to fulfill a Liberal Party of Canada election promise.
The Sea Kings, the CF-18s, without forgetting these used submarines, bought from the United Kingdom – at the time of Jean Chrétien – and which have hardly ever been able to go to sea, it’s starting to many.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from these repeated fiascos, amplified by partisan rhetoric, is that the process of renewing military equipment in Canada is unnecessarily political. Especially when the Liberals are in power and they see a partisan advantage in postponing what is still urgent.