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The reality is that if you think you are going to punish the Saudis by cancelling this contract, that contract will be filled tomorrow by China, by Russia, by somebody else, so what have you accomplished? Gerry Macartney

“This would be billions and billions of dollars of our economy lost,” he said Monday, comparing the fallout to the blow dealt to Oshawa by the announced closing of its sprawling General Motors plant. “It makes the General Motors loss (in Oshawa) look like small potatoes.”

Signed by the former Conservative government, and green-lit by the Liberals who followed, the deal to supply light armoured military vehicles built by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) to a federal Crown corporation dealing with Saudi Arabia has been controversial since it was announced in 2014.

Critics have long maintained Canada shouldn’t sell arms to Saudi Arabia, citing its human rights abuses. The slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, which Riyadh first denied, but later admitted, has intensified the heat.

A division of an American defence giant, GDLS Canada is the anchor of a huge defence sector in London, served by more than 200 suppliers in the region and a nationwide supply chain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=cjh750kItT4

Until now, the Liberals — heading into an election year, when they’ll defend two London seats — have said only they were reviewing export permits for the Saudi arms deal. But over the weekend, Trudeau made clear for the first time what the outcome could be.

“We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” he said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period.