PM’s jet promise far over the horizon
The announcement from the Trudeau Liberals was bold but false; “the government is acquiring 88 advanced fighter jets.”
No we’re not, actually — all the government did on Tuesday was announce the start of a new process to one day acquire fighter jets … in about six years. “Our government is delivering on its promise to replace Canada’s fighter jet fleet through an open and transparent competition,” said Carla Qualtrough, minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility.
I’ve lost count of how many times this process has started, but the push to replace the CF-18 fighter jets began in 1997 under Liberal PM Jean Chretien. That’s when Canada joined the Joint Strike Fighter program. The goal of that program was to lower costs of NATO and other allies by buying the same jet.
A competition was held and Lockheed Martin’s bid was chosen. That should have been it — Canada should have purchased the F-35. Canada stayed part of the JSF program under the Liberals and the Conservatives after Stephen Harper took over and continued to pay into the system year after year.
But at some point, while in opposition, the Liberals lost interest in the F-35. Last election they campaigned against it. “We will not buy the F-35 stealth fighter-bomber. We will immediately launch an open and transparent competition to replace the CF-18 fighter aircraft,” the Liberal platform read.
They didn’t immediately launch a competition to find a new jet. Instead they delayed, they bought old jets from Australia. Now they are simply starting a new process to replace a jet that was first delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force on Oct. 25, 1982. Let me put that in perspective.
When we got the first jets John Mellencamp was topping the charts with his new hit song Jack & Diane, Justin Trudeau was 10 years old and his father Pierre was still prime minister. These jets are coming up on their 37th birthday, they are older than the pilots that we are asking to fly them. Now we are asking them to fly them for another six years.
The competition announced on Tuesday asks the four companies asked to bid — SAAB, Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin — to submit initial proposals by spring of 2020. A winner will be chosen by 2022 and delivery is expected by 2025. That means the new jets will be chosen after the next election and delivered the one after that.
“It is inexcusable that Justin Trudeau spent the past four years dithering on the fighter jet file,” said Conservative defence critic James Bezan.
The Conservatives are promising to “immediately select a new fighter jet through a fair and transparent competition.”
“We will ensure that those who serve our country day in and day out are equipped with the necessary resources to meet the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces,” Bezan said.
That sounds similar to the promise the Liberals made in the last election, the one they didn’t follow through on. For too long Canada’s governing political parties — both Liberal and Conservative — have failed to properly equip Canada’s military.
It has to end.
We owe the men and women willing to put their lives on the line one basic thing, that when we ask them to put themselves in harms way that we give them the proper equipment. Promising a new process to one day get a new fighter jet by 2025 doesn’t fulfill that commitment.