Carney orders review of F-35 fighter jet purchase from U.S.’s Lockheed Martin
By Canadian Press on March 15, 2025.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked for a review of Canada’s plan to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets.
The deal with Lockheed Martin and the U.S. government is for 88 planes at a cost of about US$85 million each.
A spokesperson for Defence Minister Bill Blair says Carney has asked Blair to look into whether the F-35 contract is the best investment for Canada, or if there are better options.
Blair’s press secretary Laurent de Casanove says the government needs to do its homework given the “changing environment.”
The contract has not been cancelled, and Canada has legally committed to buying the first 16 aircraft, de Casanove says.
Carney became Prime Minister on Friday, in the midst of a trade war with the United States and threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to annex Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 15, 2024.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
12-11
Here we go again . . . did Chretien have his hand in this as well?
1987 – PC’s ordered 35 replacement helicopters for the aging CH-124 Sea King. Chretien Liberals were elected and cancelled the deal.
Replacements were not ordered for 20 years later, a few Sea King crashes and deaths, a substandard converted civilian helicopter adapted to military, the CH-148 Cyclone was delivered in 2015 . . . the aircraft had issues from the start!
Considering also the purchase made by the Liberals of the 4 submarines, which never saw all 4 fully operational at one time, and rarely has seen more than one, if that, operational. Where are they now? How many are operational?
In the case of replacing the Sea King after Chretien’s decision to cancel the EH-101 contract—which cost the government $478 million in penalties, by the way—there were several viable off-the-shelf candidates that could have been selected. For example, the U.S.-built Black Hawk is now flown by 34 countries.
We are in the beginning of WW III, by definition already in it, with conflicts growing globally, and the Liberals, probably under Chretiens oversight, want to cancel a vital piece of equipment our RCAF and military needs now!
Situation Normal with the Liberals! Every action they take appears to be to destroy our country! There are no good alternatives at this time that we can get! Trump is not going to be in office for more than 4 years, if he survives that long!
On 16 July 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government announced that it intended to procure 65 F-35s to replace the existing 80 McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornets.
On 19 October 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau won a majority in part on a campaign promise to not buy the F-35, but instead “one of the many, lower-priced options that better match Canada’s defence needs”
What they ended up buying were some old F-18’s from the Aussies, and our CF-18’s are worn out and have had to have high cost maintenance to keep them in the air!
Situation Normal with the Liberals! Now is not the time to play politics! How many nations have come to our aid and actually stood up for us against the Trump tariffs?
Do you really want to be the 51st State? Or part of China?
We need to rebuild our armed forces now, not wait another 20 years of Liberal bungling just to get another poor sub procurement that were/are money pits or another helicopter not suited for its mission/tasks as we are now stuck with!
At least Prime Minister Harper fast tracked the purchases of the Chinook helicopters, the C-17 Globemasters, Leopard II tanks etc., all purchases that met their taskings/missions and he attempted to get icebreakers for the Arctic and Arctic patrol ships in place . . . but here we are again . . . the threats of cancelling a vital piece of kit the RCAF needs, the armed forces needs and Canada needs . . . but hey . . . they are going to built a high speed rail system, and invest in other garbage that fails to protect us in this world of conflict and growing tensions! Why . . . to get re-elected!
It saddens me to see our once great country destroyed by people whose actions all move towards the end of our sovereignty!