Carney Reviews Canada’s Order of F-35 Jets Amid Rift With US

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1. Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has initiated a review of the country’s contract with Lockheed Martin for F-35 fighter jets, responding to tensions with the U.S. under President Donald Trump. Shortly after taking office, Carney directed Defence Minister Bill Blair to assess whether the C$19 billion deal for 88 F-35s is the best investment for Canada and to explore alternative options. Although the contract remains intact, officials emphasize the need to ensure it serves the interests of Canadians and the armed forces. Carney has previously advocated for redirecting military spending to domestic sources rather than relying heavily on U.S. contractors.

2. Before this discussion eventually devolves into excrement over the current cross border tension I want to point out that an observed political dynamic in Canada is that a new PM in Canada will take a drastic step in cutting a project of the previous PM to differentiate himself from his predecessor and appear to be taking decisive action to voters.

   Normally this takes the shape of a defense program. This is because Canada is a small country with a comparatively small budget to its peers and defense programs are extremely expensive when Canada has very few direct threats. It needs to prepare for defense is a secondary, if not tertiary consider consideration in Canadian politics. Therefore these programs are “easy” to cut and accomplish the afformention dynamic.
   Similarly, there’s a reason why the Trudeau administration waffled and restarted the fighter selection three times after landing on the F 35 ecery time.

3. > Carney has previously advocated for redirecting military spending to domestic sources rather than relying heavily on U.S. contractors.

   Ah yes, the vaunted Canadian defence industry.

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