Article content

Justin Trudeau is running rings just now around both his principal opponents. He is doing so not by virtue of any particular charisma or charm, but rather by clearer strategy, sharper tactics and dogged hewing to a plan that, with some exceptions, has been carefully judged. This week’s sudden, strange debate about defence procurement is a case in point.

Is Lockheed-Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter-bomber the right fighter for Canada? Is it the best plane in its class? Or is it an overpriced turkey the Pentagon itself, the aircraft’s principal purchaser, now acknowledges has major flaws?

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Michael Den Tandt: Trudeau outmanoeuvres rivals with F-35 move Back to video

It’s an unlikely question for us to be hashing through now, you’d think, given the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 1980s-vintage F-18s are being upgraded and extended through 2025, at an estimated cost of $400 million.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, facing the intractable problem of the F-35’s ballooning costs, shelved the project in late 2012 and further kicked the can down the road with the F-18 extension. The Defence department subsequently undertook and completed an exhaustive “mission-needs analysis,” overseen by an independent review panel.