To cancel or not to cancel.

This is the conundrum that Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, confronts while poised to call a federal election that will likely be defined by and fought over one question: Who do Canadians trust to take on a bully American president intent on turning a sovereign country into, officially, a US state?

Beyond the tit-for-tat tariffs being imposed in what threatens to be an escalating and punitive trade war between Canada and the United States, another prickly flashpoint has emerged.

It constitutes the first “test” of Carney’s promised commitment to weaning the nation he hopes to lead for years, not weeks, from its long, ingrained dependence on a dominant southern neighbour.

Carney is being pressed by usually disparate and antagonistic forces along Canada’s narrow political spectrum to abandon the remainder of a $19bn deal – engineered belatedly by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau – to buy an additional 62 US-made and maintained F-35 fighter jets.

Canada has already paid for 16 warplanes, which are due to be delivered by early next year.

Conservative pundits writing for conservative newspapers have joined former Liberal foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, and peace and disarmament groups in urging the prime minister to “stand up to” America’s mercurial commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.

To wit, they are demanding Carney follow Portugal’s lead and axe the planned purchase of the extra technically troubled jets as a tangible expression of Canada’s rejection of Trump’s imperial designs, as well as a stinging financial and diplomatic defence of the besieged confederation’s autonomy.

Axworthy

© Al Jazeera