RCAF to set aside CF-18 for air shows

The Canadian military is assigning a CF-18 fighter jet to the air show circuit for next year, despite Liberal government claims it does not have enough aircraft to meet its defence commitments.

Each year, the Royal Canadian Air Force assigns a CF-18, painted to highlight a specific theme, to fly at air shows across North America.

But the decision to assign a jet for next year’s air show circuit comes just after Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance warned that Canada doesn’t have enough of the jets to meet its military commitments to defend North America and contribute to NATO.

The plane, known as the CF-18 demonstration aircraft, will perform at 35 different locations in the U.S. and Canada from April to October.

In November, Sajjan announced the government needed to purchase 18 Boeing Super Hornet jets as a stopgap measure since Canada didn’t have enough CF18 fighters to perform military missions. The Liberals plan to buy a replacement fleet for the aging CF-18s at a much later date.

But critics have questioned Sajjan’s claim there are not enough jets, instead arguing the Super Hornet deal is designed to allow the Liberals to push off the replacement of the CF-18 fleet until well after the next election.

Conservative MP James Bezan, the party’s defence critic, said the assignment of the CF-18 demonstration jet to the air show circuit undercuts the Liberal government’s claim there are not enough of the fighter jets to go around.

“I understand that we like to go out there and fly the colours and that it’s part of promoting our Canadian Armed Forces but at the same time it just shows this capability gap doesn’t exist,” Bezan said Thursday. “This has been completely manufactured by the Prime Minister’s Office to make the argument that there is a need for a sole-source purchase of the Super Hornets.”