Canada’s defence industry got a $6.6 billion boost Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney formally unveiled Ottawa’s new Defence Industrial Strategy. The plan promises to create 125,000 new jobs over 10 years and award 70 per cent of defence contracts to Canadian companies, through a “Build-Partner-Buy” framework that prioritizes domestic industry. It is part of the government’s plan to increase Canadian military spending to five per cent of GDP by 2035, in line with NATO targets.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled his government’s defence industrial strategy on Tuesday, promising to build up Canada’s defence industries and seek out partnerships beyond the United States.
“Let me start by acknowledging that there are many strengths to this partnership that we have with the United States,” said Carney during a press conference in Montreal. “But it is a dependency, and it’s a dependency we want to change in a positive way by building up our defence capacities here and our other partnerships abroad.”
The Canadian government, faced with increasing hostility from the Trump administration, plans to divert billions of dollars in military spending it long gave to U.S. defense companies and direct it instead to domestic manufacturers.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s wholesale expansion of Canadian military spending was prompted by pressure from President Trump, but with relations between the longstanding allies deteriorating, American companies will no longer reap the benefit.
Canada’s new defence industrial strategy sets out a series of important, extraordinarily high benchmarks for the country to achieve over the next decade, including buying and maintaining most of the military’s equipment domestically.
The long-awaited plan, which was developed more as a response to NATO’s call for industrial clarity among allies than to annexation threats by the Trump administration, sets a goal of awarding 70 per cent of federal defence contracts to Canadian firms within a decade.
Tonight we take a hard look at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ambitions for Canada’s national defence. Over the past several months, the Prime Minister has spoken forcefully about living in a world of predatory great powers, about rebuilding the Canadian Armed Forces, strengthening NATO commitments, and dramatically increasing defence spending — even doubling it by 2030.
Unless you have spent long hours flying over Canada’s Arctic, it is difficult to grasp its scale, its harshness, or its emptiness. And yet this forbidding territory is becoming one of the most strategically important parts of our country’s future.
Why does it matter? Who else is interested in it? And what must Canada do to protect its sovereignty?
The supply flight from the air base in Trenton, Ont. to Canadian Forces Station Alert, the northernmost station on Ellesmere Island, takes roughly the same time as to fly from Trenton to Ireland. And from about an hour north of Trenton onward, there are almost no settlements to see; only rock, ice, water, and wilderness.
Canada is witnessing a once-in-a-generation shift in opinion on matters of national defence. In the absence of a traditional war, a wartime mentality is emerging: Canadians have an appetite for more defence spending as they see significant global threats.
A study commissioned by the University of Calgary and completed by Nanos Research in late 2025 points to a series of historic shifts that will influence both Canada’s defence posture and strategy. U.S. President Donald Trump’s musings about Canada becoming the 51st state and strained trade discussion have shaken Canadians.
I wonder if the same concern holds true in the diverse communities our pols find it necessary to pander to?
Ottawa has started to make payments for key components for 14 additional U.S.-built F-35s, even as the Carney government has been reviewing future fighter-jet purchases in the context of trade tensions with Washington, sources have told CBC News.
The money for these 14 aircraft is in addition to the contract for a first order of 16 F-35s, which will start being delivered to the Canadian Armed Forces at the end of the year.
According to sources, the new expenses are related to the purchase of so-called “long-lead items,” which are parts that must be ordered well in advance of the delivery of a fully assembled aircraft.
The Canadian military has destroyed 2,000 Second World War pistols but is still waiting to hear from Ukraine on whether it wants the rest of the guns for its arsenal.
The latest update from the Department of National Defence on the fate of the Browning Hi-Power pistols reveals a topsy-turvy strategy for the aging handguns.
In October 2022, the Canadian Forces decided that it would destroy the almost 11,000 sidearms since a new handgun was being purchased.
The new submarines Canada plans to buy will not arrive with all the necessary equipment to operate under Arctic ice, meaning they will require modifications after delivery, the head of the navy says.
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said Canada will need to add under-ice gear to the boats after they arrive, such as upward-facing sonar that can detect and map overhead ice and areas of open water.
SEOUL, South Korea – On a packed bullet train heading towards Seoul, the face of Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s secretary of state for defence procurement, suddenly appeared on monitors in each of the 18 train cars.
In a four-minute news story, Fuhr was shown touring Hanwha’s shipyard in Geoje, along with more than 20 Canadian CEOs along for a trade mission.
Over two days, the delegation visited multiple industrial sites and the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) submarine command base. The event was widely covered by South Korean media, and is an indicator of the importance the Republic has placed on winning the massive contract to build Canada’s next generation of submarines.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is inching closer to a possible decision to end Canada’s F-35 procurement plans and accept an offer from Sweden’s Saab, instead, with news this week revealing that the Swedish manufacturer is now providing Ottawa with detailed, technical information on what a JAS 39 Gripen fighter deal would actually look like in practice.
Among the topics currently being discussed in Ottawa are timelines for technology transfers, the speed at which a Canadian production line could be established, and how Canada could participate in future export sales of the aircraft.
OTTAWA — Canada’s fiscal watchdog projects that the Carney government’s commitment to increase defence spending to at least 5 per cent of the economy will increase the federal deficit by $63 billion a year over the next decade, almost twice what the deficit is currently expected to average over the next few years.
In a new report published Thursday, Jason Jacques, the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), said the fiscal effect of meeting Ottawa’s commitment to hit the new NATO target of 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) will ramp up gradually over the next decade and will eventually hike the federal debt-to-GDP ratio by 6.3 percentage points in 2035.
There are few policy areas in Canadian politics as tortured as the CF-18 replacement program, now entering its 16th year and undergoing its fifth evaluation — which is likely to once again recommend continuing with the purchase of F-35s.
Despite this, it was reported last week that “all the signs point to” the government pursuing a mixed fighter jet fleet, with half F-35s and half Saab Gripens. Yet the mixed fleet option comes with serious consequences that should give decision makers reason to pause.
Canada’s former top soldier says this country should keep its options open on the question of acquiring nuclear weapons, broaching a subject that has largely been closed to debate for decades.
Retired general Wayne Eyre was speaking Monday at a forum in Ottawa. The event’s topic was national sovereignty and Canadian military capability in an age of geopolitical turmoil and shifting alliances.
All we need is a crazy leader like Kim and we can be NOKO North!
Party Poopers … McGuinty: Ottawa remains opposed to acquiring nuclear weapons
OTTAWA – Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada remains opposed to acquiring nuclear weapons, despite a suggestion from a former head of the military that Ottawa should not rule it out.
McGuinty says Canada signed international treaties explicitly opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
