Mark Carney is facing calls to cancel contracts to purchase US-made F-35 jets, despite warnings from Washington that such a decision could see its planes sent into Canadian airspace.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has even proposed that Mr Carney’s government cancel a contract for 16 jets, which it had already committed to buying from the US.
“The bottom line is that purchasing F-35s from the United States will deepen our military integration with a superpower, not reduce it,” interim NDP leader Don Davies said on Wednesday, citing Mr Carney’s call last month on middle powers to build a new world order in the face of Donald Trump’s increasingly belligerent foreign policy.
Last week, the US president warned that he would impose a 50 per cent tariff on all Canadian-made aircraft sold to the US if Canada did not certify several Gulfstream jets.
“Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made, we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago,” Mr Trump wrote.
Mr Davies has suggested that Canada instead purchase Swedish Gripen fighter jets produced by Saab, Canada’s CTV News reported.
This, he said, would provide Ottawa with a “predictable source of defence co-operation” and would see “two middle powers fulfilling Mr Carney’s stated goals”.
It emerged earlier this week that Canadian officials are looking to other countries to supply it with fighter jets, including Saab, which has offered to manufacture the jets in Canada, creating 12,600 jobs.
“The government is interested in all major projects that can not only protect Canada's security and sovereignty, but also create jobs across the country,” Mélanie Joly, the Minister of Industry, told CBC News.
“We certainly can’t control President Trump, but … we can control our defence investments, who we award contracts to and how we are ultimately able to create jobs in Canada. So we’re going to focus on that.”
Canada first agreed to purchase 88 F-35A advanced fighter jets from US manufacturer Lockheed Martin in 2022, with the country initially committing to funding 16 deliverable jets.
The programme ran into challenges, taking longer than expected to manufacture the jets, while a 2025 initial audit of the deal found that the program had risen to $27.7bn (£20.4bn) in cost – up from its initial $19bn (£14bn).
