NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced Sunday his party would cancel Canada’s contract to buy U.S.-built F-35s and look for companies to build fighter jets in Canada — a proposal that some defence experts say comes with steep costs.
“Purchasing from the [United] States at this time is not in our national security interest,” Singh told reporters in Iqaluit just days after Defence Minister Bill Blair said Canada is reconsidering its F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington.
“Let’s buy fighter jets where the company will build those jets in [Canada], creating jobs but also a national security of knowing that we can build and we can maintain those fighter jets in our own country,” Singh added.
After years of delay, the Liberal government signed a contract with the U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin in June 2023 to purchase 88 F-35 jets.
But now, as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up his threats to annex Canada by economic force, there’s been a groundswell of support…