Watched Carney's introductory presser as PM.
As far as news goes, these were the highlights from his Q&A:
- Emmanuel Macron has invited him to to a visit in Paris. And after meeting Macron, he'll be meeting with Keir Starmer in the UK. Discussions will be focused on security in Europe & Canada, increased trade & economic links and the historic ties between our countries.
- No plans to visit the United States, will talk to Trump at an unspecified future time.
- He declined to answer when or if he'll be recalling the house, when he'll have an election or where he’ll be running for his own seat. He joked that they'd have an election "sometime before November" before saying more news will be coming out in the next few days.
- Snapped at a bit at a reporter who'd asked basically if we'd seek public support/assurances of Canada's sovereignty & security from our allies. Said that "we are the masters of our own house" and that we're in charge of assuring our own sovereignty. That while “it’s nice if people say nice things about you”, we don’t need it and won’t be seeking it.
View: https://x.com/markjcarney/status/1900632949491691634?s=46&t=slvKDnX1n9ri7D4jpSVVzA
What are your overall impressions of him?
There y' go - see bolded.![]()
Carney orders review of F-35 fighter jet purchase from U.S.’s Lockheed Martin
Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked for a review of Canada’s plan to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets.www.ctvnews.ca
View attachment 25100
So I've been looking into this more over the last week, especially as more concrete statements about what the US can and can't do to the planes after delivery have come out this week.
I think a reasonable outcome here is to accept that we're stuck with the first 16 planes (my understanding is that we've already paid for them, not that we're just legally committed to buying them. Money has already changed hands I believe) and those are set to be delivered in 2028.
I think that cancelling the rest of the purchase and going with the Rafale is the way to go. It leaves us with a limited 5th gen backbone if anything comes up where we need a stealth platform, but a very good 4.5th gen to handle the majority of the heavy lifting. That contract should be 60-70 planes, and split between existing units that can be delivered soon so that we can start phasing out the old F-18's asap, and new units we would likely receive in 2029-2030.
The 'kill switch' issue with the F35 is more of a mix of limited capability & longer term forced obsolence issue apparently than a brick switch. The US has certain network access capabilities built into them that require ongoing support from the US and that they can turn off. This diminishes some of the capability of the aircraft, but doesn't brick it, alter it's ability to function as an aircraft, etc. It's kind of like having an android smartphone but google cancelling your gmail account and access to any google apps you're using on it. Your phone isn't bricked, you can just do less with it than you could before.
I've seen the long term issues explained similarly. If the Americans choose to lock you out of software updates you're stuck run the same firmware forever and slowly attrit capability vs potential threats. So it would be like owning an iphone 15, frozen in time with software from it's launch, in a world where your competitors might have the iphone 30.
With where we are now, there's no sense in not taking delivery of what's already paid for, but also no sense in paying for any more of them.
![]()
Carney orders review of F-35 fighter jet purchase from U.S.’s Lockheed Martin
Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked for a review of Canada’s plan to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets.www.ctvnews.ca
View attachment 25100
So I've been looking into this more over the last week, especially as more concrete statements about what the US can and can't do to the planes after delivery have come out this week.
I think a reasonable outcome here is to accept that we're stuck with the first 16 planes (my understanding is that we've already paid for them, not that we're just legally committed to buying them. Money has already changed hands I believe) and those are set to be delivered in 2028.
I think that cancelling the rest of the purchase and going with the Rafale is the way to go. It leaves us with a limited 5th gen backbone if anything comes up where we need a stealth platform, but a very good 4.5th gen to handle the majority of the heavy lifting. That contract should be 60-70 planes, and split between existing units that can be delivered soon so that we can start phasing out the old F-18's asap, and new units we would likely receive in 2029-2030.
The 'kill switch' issue with the F35 is more of a mix of limited capability & longer term forced obsolence issue apparently than a brick switch. The US has certain network access capabilities built into them that require ongoing support from the US and that they can turn off. This diminishes some of the capability of the aircraft, but doesn't brick it, alter it's ability to function as an aircraft, etc. It's kind of like having an android smartphone but google cancelling your gmail account and access to any google apps you're using on it. Your phone isn't bricked, you can just do less with it than you could before.
I've seen the long term issues explained similarly. If the Americans choose to lock you out of software updates you're stuck run the same firmware forever and slowly attrit capability vs potential threats. So it would be like owning an iphone 15, frozen in time with software from it's launch, in a world where your competitors might have the iphone 30.
With where we are now, there's no sense in not taking delivery of what's already paid for, but also no sense in paying for any more of them.
There y' go - see bolded.
Not up to your speed regarding options; just have heard (very much in passing) that Rafale rocks.
If for nothing else, telling Governor Abbott that he'll have to sell a shit-ton of cotton tshirts to make up for the lost F35 contract.I don't hate the idea of having those 16 F 35's in house either as I want to believe that sanity will eventually prevail to the south of us and they really are a spectacular platform that puts us a step better than Russia, China, Iran, etc if it ever comes to crossing swords with them.