The National Post is getting in the Gripen camp.
Kelly McParland: Swedish jet offer is about more than just planes
Should Carney opt for the Swedish jet it would confirm Canada's determination to make its own choices.
New parents quickly develop a keen understanding of the gains to be had from anything that helps avoid waking the baby. Peace and quiet for one thing. A period of calm. A moment to think.
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In Canada’s case, the baby is the current U.S. president. The president, as we know from repeat experience, is easily upset. When the president gets upset, he gets cranky, makes a lot of noise and causes untold disturbances. If you can, you want to avoid getting him upset.
The obvious danger is that he’d set off yet another temper tantrum in the White House. Carney is only too aware of what happens when Donald Trump’s hair-trigger sensitivities get squeezed. Being forced to apologize for Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad campaign can’t have been fun. Carney did it because he felt he had to, yet there’s been little evidence Canadians got much in return. Trade negotiations are still in the deep freeze, and Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc
says no one is wasting time waiting for Trump to get over his snit. “We’re not going to wait around and look at our phones and turn up the notifications to make sure we don’t miss a ding because somebody sent us a text message at 9:30 at night,” he noted archly last week.
There’s little doubt that dumping the F-35 in favour of Gripens would go over poorly in Washington. The U.S. has plenty of ways to retaliate, from searing tariffs to border restrictions, investment barriers, cancelled treaties and whatever weird and wondrous sanctions administration figures can dream up. Prickly U.S. ambassador Pete Hoekstra has already suggested it could
threaten the joint NORAD defence alliance.
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But at what point does Canada, along with the rest of the world, quit struggling to pacify a president who’s made it clear he can’t be pacified? Trump’s action in suspending trade talks over the Ontario ad campaign succinctly defined the problem: it’s no longer possible to guess how the U.S. will react to any given action at any given moment. Formal agreements may be ignored or cancelled on a whim. No one can be sure the U.S. will stick to a commitment once it’s been made. The president treats promises as ephemeral, and legalities as annoyances to be broken or evaded. The reliability of the world’s most powerful country depends on the mood of one very feckless, reckless and irresponsible individual.
But ditching a multi-billion-dollar mega-deal that’s backed by Canada’s military and has survived two previous governments would be a red flag before an easily-agitated bull.
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Should Carney opt for the Swedish jet it would signal his willingness to deal with whatever fallout ensued. And maybe it’s time he did. As LeBlanc underlined, you can’t run a country sitting by social media waiting to see what sort of tantrum erupts across the border. Every time Ottawa placates a capricious U.S. demand it takes another step towards identifying Canada as a branch plant economy, ever on edge over what demand will be tossed across the border next
If the prime minister is prepared to fairly equate the Swedish proposal and accept it in place of the F-35 plan he would do much to confirm Canada’s determination to defend and strengthen the independence Carney pledged to protect, despite the potential ramifications, economic and otherwise. If not, if he’s using the visit as a feint in hope of squeezing more benefits from Washington, he’s acting shabbily towards our Swedish ally, not to say undermining his proclaimed plan to bolster European trade as an alternative to Canada’s over-reliance on an unreliable America.
Should Carney opt for the Swedish jet it would confirm Canada's determination to make its own choices.
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