Surrounded by Liberal supporters, Mr. Trudeau during a partisan meeting at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 located at the Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia declared unequivocally failing valid arguments: ‘We Will not buy the F-35 fighter jet ‘.
He proposed replacing the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet entered service in 1983 by aircraft according to him ‘more affordable than the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II’ without identifying them.
At the same time, the Liberal MP of the riding of Papineau proposed to launch an ‘Open and Transparent Competition’ which excludes the F-35.
But time has passed. Justin Trudeau’s party won the October the 19^th general elections with a majority of seats and became Prime Minister.

Le ministre de la défense Harjit Sajjan en Irak.
Photo CBC.

Two months later, his Defense Minister, Harjit Sajjan, in a telephone interview from Erbil in northern Iraq, seems to derogate from Justin Trudeau election promise reiterated the night of the victory by Dominic Leblanc, Liberal MP of Beauséjour New Brunswick riding and now Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence.
Mr Sajjan said, that the government will hold an ‘Open process for replacing the Royal Canadian Air Force’s aging CF-18s, while not ruling the Lockheed Martin F-35 out of any future competition’.

CF-18 Hornet over Hawaii.

This declaration is light years ahead of what Justin Trudeau said during the campaign where he did not hesitate to promise to voters of Nova Scotia and more widely, the Maritimes where major Canadian shipyards are located that the money saved by eliminating the F-35 would be invested in the renewal of the Royal Canadian Navy ships.
The new Minister of Defence somewhat caught himself and added that ‘My focus is about replacing our CF-18, and we’re going through a proper process to make safe-have we the right requirements so we-have the right capability, not only for our country for how we aim relates to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and our Commitments to NATO ‘. This is far away from the reason given by Justin Trudeau to justify its rejection of the F-35. For the latter, the main mission of the sucessor of the CF-18 would be the defense of North American airspace making the need of stealth and sophisticated combat aircraft like the F-35 unnecessary.
Yet the federal Liberals has accustomed us to this kind of electioneering maneuver.

Lockheed Martin F-35A.
Photo USAF.

While Canada is dragging its feet on the issue of the renewal of its CF-18, all delivered between 1983 and 1988, the F-35 program is gaining momentum elsewhere.
Thus in 2015, the US Marine Corps declared operational its F-35B on July the 31st, the first Italy-assembled F-35 made its roll-out on December the 3rd, the assembly of the first F-35 in Japan begun on December the 15th while Israel estimated at more than 5 billion US dollars the amount of economic benefits from the F-35 for its aerospace and defence industries.
At the end of the year, already 126 F-35s are operational and 493 are expected to be in late 2019.
Finally, Lockheed Martin has achieved in 2015 its production goals with the delivery of a total of 45 aircraft:

29 F-35A to the US Air Force

8 F-35B to the US Marine Corps

8 F-35C to the US Navy

2 F-35A to the Luftforsvaret (Royal Norwegian Air Force)

1 F-35A to the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force).

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

Even if the aerospace industry has not been a big topics of the election trail, the fate of the F-35 in Canada suddenly became one briefly because of Justin Trudeau, chief of the Liberal Party of Canada. Unanticipadly in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September, the 20th, the 50th day of the campaign, Justin Trudeau declared ‘We will not buy the F-35’. By the same token, he announced ‘An Open and Transparent Competition’.

He justified his position by saying that the main role of the planes that will replace the CF-18 will be the defense of the North American air space. He finally added by replying to a journalist that buying an combat aircraft other than the F-35 ‘will make save billions of dollars’.

He even dared to add the Lockheed Martin F-35 Ligthning II will be excluded from the call for tender he will call if he is elected. New Democratic Party (NDP) chief Thomas Mulcair called too for a competition for the replacement of the Royal Canadian Air Force McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighters but letting the F-35 enter the contest.

Dominic Leblanc.

On Election eve, Dominic Leblanc, incubent and then re-elected Liberal Member of Parliament of Beauséjour, New Brunswick riding reiterated on TV Trudeau stand on his opposition to the F-35

Likewise in 1993, Liberal Party chief Jean Chrétien promised during the electoral campaign to scrap the contract for AgustaWestland EH-101 signed by the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

Once elected, Chrétien cancelled the order, paid CAN$500 millions in damage to the AngloItalian helicopter manufacturer to order a few years later the Cormoran, a derivative of the EH-101.

Canadian Participation in the Joint Strike Fighter started in 1997 while Canadian industrial involvment plan was confirmed in 2006. The F-35 was formally selected by Canada in 2010.

McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet.

The Royal Canadian Air Force still flies 64 of the 138 CF-18 ordered in 1980 and delivered between 1982 and 1988.

According to Canadian government report the cost of 65 F-35 will be CAN$44 billions over 42 years.