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John Ivison: Expensive submarines are the cost to redeem years of Liberal defence complacency

It would have been unthinkable for the government to commit this easily to the largest procurement in Canadian history just two years ago

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Just over two years ago, the Liberal government released its defence policy review, Our North, Strong and Free, which purported to focus on Arctic sovereignty by defending Canada’s coastline from maritime and airborne threats.

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It was acknowledged that the only vessels capable of denying access to the Arctic by foreign powers were submarines.

John Ivison: Expensive submarines are the cost to redeem years of Liberal defence complacency Back to video

It was also recognized that Canada’s four Victoria-class submarines — bought from the British after they were decommissioned in 1994 and left to rust on land for years — were not fit for the purpose. Billions of dollars were spent trying to keep them at sea in order to forestall a decision that even the Trudeau government recognized was inevitable. (In 2019, all four subs were in dry dock and didn’t spend a single day at sea.)

Yet the 2024 defence document talked only of “exploring options” for new diesel-electric submarines and committed no new money for their purchase.

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The defence minister at the time, Bill Blair, was candid about his challenges in trying to persuade cabinet colleagues about the need for submarine capability. “I had to sort of keep on pushing my issue about the importance and the need to invest in defence,”........

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