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Scott Taylor: Rearming the army? Pick up the pace 

Canada's military has lengthy shopping list

Thanks to the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, for the past year Canada’s defence and security have been at the forefront of public discourse.

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From the ludicrous notion that Canada will become the 51st state to the very real whimsical imposing of trade tariffs, Trump has steadfastly maintained that Canada must make a massive increase to our defence budget or face his wrath.

For his part, Prime Minister Mark Carney has tried to judo-flip the equation by agreeing to spend more in total but less on U.S.-made defence systems. In other words, we’ll beef up our defence budget but take those dollars anywhere but the U.S.

Unfortunately for Carney, not only is that a difficult proposition in the short term, he also has resistance from within the ranks of the senior military leadership.

The Royal Canadian Air Force are hell bent on buying Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, and only F-35 fighter jets. This is despite the fact that last spring Carney ordered a full review of the remainder of that contract before proceeding.

In December 2024, Canada agreed to buy a fleet of 88 F-35s at a project cost of $19 billion, but only contracted the purchase of 16 aircraft at a cost of $7 billion. Following Carney’s orders for the RCAF to review the remainder of the order, Saab of........

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