Canada is asking the wrong question

The F-35 debate, the submarine competition, the Arctic sovereignty gap—they all share the same missing variable. And Canada already knows the answer, if it chooses to look.

Then-Innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne tests out an F-35 fighter jet simulator at the CANSEC trade show in Ottawa on June 1, 2023.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY MOHAMMAD AL ZAIBAK

May 25, 2026

Ottawa is consumed by a series of defence procurement debates: F-35 or Gripen, German or South Korean submarines, faster decisions or more rigorous ones. These are not bad questions. But they are the second-best questions. The best question—the one that will determine whet...

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