Pick the right fighter jet

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, Sigmund Freud supposedly said (but which there is no evidence for.) But it sounds like him, and it just means that symbolism can be overdone.

But in the case of the ongoing saga as to whether Canada should buy U.S.-made F35 fighter jets or Swedish Gripens, symbolism is highly important.

The wrong image would be to move ahead and buy 88 F35s. That might be what Canada’s air force officially wants. It’s certainly what U.S. President Donald Trump wants. But neither should get their way.

Let’s keep in mind that our air force – and the Canadian Armed Forces in general – is highly tethered to the American military. Tactically and operationally, the CAF has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. in the past, with Canadian soldiers completely embedded within U.S. military operations. (Not to mention regular training exercises that continue to this day.) In other words, the air force is comfortable with U.S. military hardware and U.S. personnel. And that’s the problem.

It’s not just a military problem, either. Canada and the U.S. are conjoined in so many ways that it will be years before we achieve the kind of geopolitical balance we should have developed decades ago. Yes, we want to remain friends and be cooperative with our southern neighbour. But never again should we be this close, this beholden, or this vulnerable.

The air force can rightly point out that the F35 may be technologically advanced, but it comes with invisible strings: maintenance contracts, software dependencies, and a U.S.-controlled supply chain that pulls Canada deeper into Washington’s orbit.

The Gripen, on the other hand, offers lower operating costs and enhanced Arctic readiness. It also represents partnership, not dependency. Sweden has sweetened the deal with its commitment to cooperative defence arrangements. And if the CAF buys 72 Gripen fighter jets and six GlobalEye surveillance aircraft, Saab could deliver 12,600 jobs in Canada, according to CBC News.

This might not seem to be a local issue, on the surface. But at a time in our development as a nation when each of us is being called upon to boycott U.S. products, stop going to Disney World, and stand up for the nation we love, we all have a say in this matter.

A mixed fleet or an all-Gripen choice of fighter jets would say to the world that Canada charts its own course. It’s getting the symbolism right.

Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern business management, once said that “the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”

The prime minister, armed with today’s logic, must make the right choice soon.