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OTTAWA — One of the first lessons a president learns is that every word he says weighs a ton, Calvin Coolidge once said.

The same is true of Canadian prime ministers, which is perhaps why you haven’t heard Justin Trudeau talk recently about blocking Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet from the competition to replace the venerable CF-18s.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or John Ivison: Trudeau shouldn't rule out purchasing Lockheed's F-35 just because he said he would Back to video

During the election, he vowed a Liberal government would not buy the F-35 stealth fighter, freeing up “tens of billions of dollars” to spend on the navy.

Opposition leaders don’t have access to the classified information available to prime ministers and that may explain why, once in power, his defence minister was markedly less enthusiastic about ruling out the F-35 when he launched his defence review earlier this month. Harjit Sajjan said the process will be open and transparent, suggesting the new statement of requirement that will outline the parameters of the tender process will not be written to exclude the stealth fighter.