Japan and Canada share the vision of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific,’ and a close partnership between the defence industries of both countries is coming into view.
CUSMA negotiations may spell further trouble as the carceral agribusiness competes in Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector, and implicates prison labour in a supply chain of powdered milk exports.
It’s unlikely that the Air Force’s pilot shortage will be rectified by the 2030s, and the global security situation will allow Canada the luxury of standing up another Snowbird squadron for the express purpose of astonishing onlookers at airshows.
Alliances will shift, trade talks will stall, and military procurement decisions will be reconsidered all because one party is no longer interested in hearing the other’s views.
Capability gaps exist in the Canadian Armed Forces that need to be addressed ‘yesterday,’ according to Joe Varner, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
With its scope expanded to new categories of vessels that may be less familiar with polar hazards, it is time to strengthen awareness and increased enforcement in the Canadian Arctic.
Canada has a promising new approach to defence procurement that meets the moment. Together, Bill C-31 and Budget 2026 are an opportunity for the country to align the operating systems beneath that strategy to ensure the emerging industrial base is truly sovereign and homegrown.
Canadian governments had become complacent and arguably neglectful to the needs our military. Events have snapped us out of this complacency.
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.
The Defence Industrial Strategy—aimed as it is at driving innovation, high-wage, high-skill employment and ultimately boosting productivity—is key to unlocking the economic potential of Canada’s massive defence funding increases over the next decade.
Buying a proven platform does not have to mean surrendering industrial ambition. In some cases, it can be the beginning of it.
The current fleet of CF-18 fighter jets must be retired in 2032. Therefore, we need to act fast. Planning is already underway to ensure a smooth transition from old fighter jets to new.
We are defending our country, the future of our nation, and the next generation of Canada.
AI is nothing without data. The defence procurement mandate must answer the real sovereignty question of whether the systems powering this country’s most critical national capabilities will remain governed by Canadian interests, protected under Canadian standards and be resilient when pressure comes.
Because in today’s geopolitical environment, Canada cannot afford to lose control over the mineral assets tied to our future security and industrial base.
Critics warn Bill C-22 risks weakening cybersecurity as telecommunications firms and other service providers could be legally obligated to store Canadian users’ metadata for up to a year. But the public safety minister says some tech firms are ‘misinterpreting’ the bill, and that ‘safeguards’ are written in.
As the new Defence Investment Agency is getting underway, it is critical to start on the right foot and not overlook opportunities to streamline the purchasing process used for the vast majority of Canadian Armed Forces contracts.
‘It’s a shot across the bow. The U.S. administration has clearly been watching the PM’s moves on defence and has concludes that there’s too much talk and too little action,’ says defence expert Christian Leuprecht.
As the Carney government increases defence spending and rolls out its ambitious Defence Industrial Strategy, it’s making decisions that will shape Canada’s defence capacity for decades. Yet, there is still no clear plan to ensure Indigenous firms are part of the sovereign supply chain being built.
The countries that succeed in the coming decade will not necessarily be those with the largest budgets alone. They will be the ones capable of adapting fastest, integrating innovation most effectively, and translating industrial capacity into operational capability at speed.
Stephanie Carvin and Amarnath Amarasingam say the COVID-19 pandemic unified a fragmented movement ‘that could easily snap back together’ under the right environment.
Canada has committed to spend big for NATO, but how the money is spent is the essential question.
The U.S. announced on May 18 that it is pausing participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, alleging Canada hasn’t made ‘credible’ progress on defence investments.
The current plan for upgrades and refurbishment of the Leopard 2 tanks is aimed at ensuring ‘platform viability until 2035’—that means their replacement should have been put on a fast track at least five years ago.
If Quebec fails to bring the defence bank to Montreal, it’ll have no one to blame but itself.
