Caving to the U.S. ambassador
OTTAWA—I was at home in Ottawa on July 4, and witnessed firsthand the flypast of two United States F-35s and two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jets flying in formation.
The occasion was the U.S. Embassy's 250th anniversary Independence Day garden party hosted by Ambassador Pete Hoekstra at his lavish official residence.
My immediate thought was to question Canadian military participation in a tribute to a nation whose president continues to threaten us with annexation, punish us with tariffs, and who delayed the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge until his financial demands had been met.
At the time, the Department of National Defence issued a press release explaining that the flypast was meant to demonstrate the way Canada and the U.S. routinely work together as part of NORAD, the joint continental aerospace defence command. The inference being that this was somehow a show of gratitude to the U.S., conjured up by the brain trust at the Canadian Armed Forces.
If that was the case, that would be stupid in itself. Almost anyone who loosely follows defence issues in Canada knows that of all things in the news, the purchase of U.S.-built F-35s is one of the most contentious issues currently causing discord between our two nations.
Allow me to quickly recap the current impasse. After more than two decades of on-again, off-again stops and starts on the project, Canada announced in March 2022 that the RCAF would purchase 88 F-35 fighter jets to replace the aging fleet of CF-18s that have been in service since the mid 1980s. In December 2022, Canada signed the contract to actually purchase the first 16 F-35s from Lockheed Martin. The remaining 72 fighters on the order books are not yet contracted.
It was this loophole that gave Prime Minister Mark Carney some ammunition against U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war tariffs and threats of annexation. In March 2025, as part of his “elbows up” rallying cry, Carney ordered the RCAF brass to review the outstanding portion of the F-35 purchase.
That review was finished last year, and it is now up to Carney to make a decision. Media reports revealed that the F-35 deal is a major bargaining chip in the ongoing trade talks between Canada and the U.S.
For their part, Sweden’s Saab have offered to build their Gripen fighter jets in Canada should the RCAF decide to pivot away from acquiring only the F-35 and instead operate a mixed fleet of Gripen and F-35 fighters.
In a very undiplomatic manner, none other than Hoekstra weighed in on this public debate. In a CBC interview, he warned that if Canada did not simply proceed with buying all 88 F-35s from Lockheed Martin, the entire NORAD defence partnership would need to be revisited. According to Hoekstra, this would result in more U.S. fighters flying in Canadian airspace as a necessary protection of American interests. Hoekstra also stated bluntly that Canada cannot operate a mixed fleet of fighter jets.
For the record, U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of NORAD, told a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 19 that fifth-generation fighter jets like the F-35 are not strictly necessary to defend North American borders. He stated that advanced stealth capabilities are better suited for overseas power-projection missions rather than domestic airspace defence.
Which brings us back to the decision to conduct a flypast on the Fourth of July employing two RCAF CF-18s and two U.S.F-35s. The headline and sub-headlines of an Aug. 6 Ottawa Citizen article tell the whole story: "Canadian military says it didn’t initiate July 4 flypast—U.S. ambassador requested it: The participation of the two CF-18s accounted for approximately $139,680 in 'budgeted flying hours,' a DND spokesperson said, with the actual flypast costing approximately $23,280."
Which begs the question of just how tone deaf the RCAF brass are in reading the mood of the Canadian public. People are keen for any kind of pushback on Trump's increasingly unhinged threats to annex us into the "51st state."
Hitting Trump in the pocketbook of the U.S. military-industrial complex by scrapping the remainder of the F-35 purchase would undoubtedly be a national morale booster.
Instead, the RCAF brass remain defiant in their quest to obtain the F-35 and only the F-35. For the record, there is currently a petition circulating wherein tens of thousands of Canadian citizens are demanding the recall of Ambassador Hoekstra for his bullying manner.
In response, the RCAF spent $139,680 of its operational budget to provide Hoekstra with a military flypast because he simply “requested” it?
Last week, independent outlet The Breach published a video entitled “How Canada's elite are selling Mark Carney's militarization agenda,” which debunks several standing myths about Canada's defence posture.
One of those myths was that "a strengthened Canadian military will defend us against the U.S.” After detailing the close relationship between the two militaries—particularly among the senior leadership—host Martin Lukacs concludes: "If the U.S. military rolled across the border, the Canadian military wouldn't be engaged in guerrilla resistance. They would be backslapping them at the border."
Following this flypast to placate His Excellency Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, I daresay The Breach’s assessment is not a stretch of the imagination.
Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine.
The Hill Times