(Ottawa) Whether it is a Canadian or American fighter jet that manages to shoot down intruding objects in North American space, the important thing is the result, Justin Trudeau argued on Monday.
“We are less concerned about who receives the credit than about the result,” argued the Prime Minister at a press conference in a hangar at the airport in Whitehorse, Yukon, with two Canadian Armed Forces aircraft in the background. parked on the snowy tarmac.
Stating that Washington and Ottawa carried out last Saturday’s operation jointly, he argued that was exactly how the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was supposed to operate.
The Prime Minister’s trip was planned before the operation to destroy the object flying over the Yukon by a NORAD fighter plane.
“Worrying”
The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, sees these intrusions into Canadian airspace as proof of the Trudeau government’s inaction. The liberals “have failed to combat growing threats, especially those from the Communist Party in Beijing” in recent years, he charged.
“The cancellation [par les libéraux] F-35 fighter jets has lost years and billions of dollars that could have been invested in our Armed Forces. If Canada had owned these jets, we would not be so vulnerable and unprepared for danger,” he added in a statement.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, agrees: the stocks of the Canadian Armed Forces are insufficient. But on the other hand, he considers “worrying” what is happening at the moment in the sky of North America.
“It is not trivial that we have to send fighter planes to shoot down objects that fly over the space of North American territory, whether in Canada or the United States. It will never be light, it will never be trivial, ”he said at a press conference in parliament on Monday.
“And it seems to recall China’s practices towards Taiwan, China’s practices towards Japan, making provocations by airspace intrusions on a fairly regular basis,” said the Bloc leader.
“Obviously there is a trend”
Four flying objects of various shapes were shot down in the space of about a week in the North American sky.
“Clearly there is a tendency [pattern] “, commented Justin Trudeau about these serial incursions.
Efforts to locate the debris of the downed object are still continuing, he said.