By Scott Taylor
Nobody likes a bully, and at his recent World Economic Forum speech in Davos, Switzerland Prime Minister Mark Carney garnered international kudos in calling for middle powers to stand-up to would be super power bullies.
Carney deliberately refrained from naming the US in his brief address, but President Donald J. Trump was astute enough to know Carney's words were aimed at him.
In his verbal backlash at the perceived criticism, Trump made the crass remark that NATO allies such as Canada had stayed "a little off the front-lines" during the decades long conflict in Afghanistan. Naturally, such a statement drew rebukes from all the NATO countries whose soldiers had spilled blood fighting in that US led occupation.
Trump then singled out Canada and Carney for not being 'grateful' enough for the protection the US will provide with Trump's proposed new Golden Dome missile defence shield.
To revive all the old insults, Trump also referred to Carney as 'Governor' in a recent Truth Social post. This of course, reflecting Trump's oft repeated claim of forcibly submitting Canada into becoming the 51st state, either through economic pressure or military force.
Under normal circumstances Ambassadors would attempt to de-escalate inter-state tensions by making apologies or sane-splaining the rantings of the US President.
However, incumbent US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has decided instead to double down and fan the flames of unnecessary instigation. In a January 26 interview with CBC, Hoekstra said that Canadians could face dire consequences if the decision is made not to move forward with the full purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
Hoekstra went so far as to state that if Canada opts out of the F-35 purchase, the long standing NORAD agreement would be null and void. As a result, Canada would need to accept US fighter jets flying in our airspace at their own discretion.
In other words, Canada either buys the US built F-35's or we forfeit the sovereignty of our own air space. That is the logic and tactics of a mob boss.
However, given Carney's brave words of standing up to bullies, Hoekstra has just handed the Prime Minister a golden opportunity to actually get his elbows up and deliver a blow to Trump's bottom line.
For those who have not been following this ongoing saga closely, here is a brief recap. The RCAF announced that it intended to purchase 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 Fighter jets in December 2022 at a total projected cost of $19 billion. That cost would later jump to more than $27 billion.
However, Canada actually only committed to buying the first 16 F-35s for a price tag of $7 billion. The first of those aircraft will be delivered this year, 2026, but will not enter actual operations in Canada until 2027.
In March of 2025 during the opening rounds of Trump's tariff wars, Carney ordered the RCAF to review the overall F-35 project. Yes, we are well into the first contracted phase of the deal and we will undoubtedly take delivery of those first 16 F-35's.
However, Canada has the option of walking away from the remainder of that program.
During the competition to find a replacement for Canada's aged out fleet of CF-18 Hornet fighters, the Saab Gripen had finished a close second to the F-35.
Since the moment Carney ordered the F-35 review, Saab has dusted off their proposal and sharpened their pencils. Last week they offered to sell Canada a package of 72 Gripen fighters along with 6 GlobalEye Surveillance aircraft. The airframe for the GlobalEye are already produced in Canada by Bombardier and Saab has offered to assemble the fleet of Gripens in Canada.
The latest estimate on this deal is that it would create 12,600 jobs in Canada's aviation industry. No specific dollar figure was made public by Saab on this latest offer.
However, even if it is the same ballpark as the remainder of the F-35 purchase, roughly $21 billion, the Gripens are far more economical to operate. The cost to fly a Gripen is estimated at $8-12K per hour, whereas the complex F-35 sucks up between $33-50K for every flying hour.
As for the longer term sustainability of those aviation jobs moving forward, Ukraine has expressed interest in acquiring up to 100 Gripens to re-equip any post-war Ukraine Air Force, and the potential world wide market for GlobalEye is substantial.
That said, stalwart RCAF proponents of the F-35 and only the F-35 need to concede the fact that the Gripen is an excellent Arctic interceptor fighter with an availability rate that puts the complex, maintenance heavy F-35 to shame. The two fighters are purpose built for different purposes.
The F-35 is a stealth strike aircraft meant to take out a near-peer's air defences on day one of a conflict. On the other hand the Gripen excels at intercepting hostile threats in the high Arctic from remote landing strips. There is no reason that the RCAF would not be able to operate a mixed fleet of fighters.
But, it was Ambassador Hoekstra himself who told Canadians that we are not able to sustain a mixed fleet.
Let's prove him wrong. We need to cancel the remainder of the F-35 purchase, pivot to Saab, bolster our domestic aviation industry and in doing so show the world that Carney walks the walk.
As for Hoekstra's threats about NORAD airspace being controlled by the US, I suggest we hastily invest in some serious Surface to Air Missile systems, such as the French-Italian Aster family of missiles.
Once we actually possess those, we could tell Ambassador Hoekstra and President Trump to FAFO.
