Tariff Fight Raises Questions About Canada’s F-35, P-8 Purchases

The on-again, off-again export tariff tiff between the U.S. and Canada is prompting calls from some for Canada to reconsider more than $20 billion in contracts for two military aircraft procurements. Canada has committed to buying 88 F-35 fighters and 16 P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance platforms, but a rising sense of uneasiness with the U.S. has forced senior government officials to defend going ahead with the contracts. “We’ve gone through a long process of selecting the F-35 fighter jet. We remain committed to that," Defence Minister Bill Blair told reporters in early February just after the threatened 25% tariffs on almost all Canadian exports to the U.S. were paused. "My job was to make sure that the American industry and the American government understands the importance of our shared responsibility and relationship in getting that job done.”

Since then, President Donald Trump has amplified his calls to make Canada the "51st state" and a nervous state of heightened patriotism has erupted in Canada. Shortly after Trump partially paused tariffs that were set for March 4, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the country's largest newspaper, published an op-ed making the case to cancel the F-35s, saying Canada will never completely control the fighters. Lockheed Martin keeps eight million lines of code that control the aircraft's systems secret and anytime the plane flies it must first access that code. Michael Byers, the author of the op-ed, says it would be a simple thing to deny access to the code and render the planes useless. The country's second largest paper, the National Post, chimed in with its own op-ed, saying canceling the contract would be ridiculous.

The rising online tide of opposition to the F-35 acquisition has prompted fans of the Saab Gripen, the only other platform that was allowed to compete for the contract, to call for its reconsideration. The Gripen, one commenter opined, "doesn't come with a kill switch in the Pentagon" and deserves a second look. The discussion has also led to the renewed circulation of a Saab photo of a Gripen almost literally wrapped in a Canadian flag.