Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberal government of poorly managing Canada’s military and exposing the country to foreign aggression.
Poilievre released a statement on social media on Monday, responding to the recent aerial objects flying through Canada.
“These […] violations of our national sovereignty should be a wake-up call for the Trudeau Liberals,” said Poilievre. “Due to Liberal mismanagement of national defence, Canada lacks effective early warning systems to detect this type of incursion.”
On Saturday, American fighter jets downed an aerial object near the Yukon, Alaska border, and on Sunday, American jets downed another such object above Lake Huron.
Poilievre said these cases show Canada has become unprepared under Trudeau.
The Leader of the Opposition criticized Trudeau’s decision eight years ago to cancel the purchase of F-35 aircraft – fighter jets similar to those used by Americans to shoot down each foreign object this month.
According to former defence advisor David J. Bercuson, that’s a reasonable point.
“I guess you could say that,” said Bercuson. “You have to ask yourself why there wasn’t a Canadian jet involved. And it could well be that our ancient [air] teams are simply not capable of doing the job.”
Bercuson, a well-known military historian, emphasized that Canada’s military has been struggling in recent years, including last October when defense Chief Wayne Eyre urged Canadians to fill 10,000 empty positions.
On Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau addressed concerns about the Canadian military, and how Canadian jets were seemingly absent throughout this month’s four cases of shot-down flying objects.
He said Canada was concentrating on getting the job done in partnership with the United States, and Canadian jets happened not to be the best option.
“Our focus was not on which side gets credit for what,” said Trudeau. “Our focus was on running the operation smoothly and successfully.”
Trudeau said this month’s aerial object incidents should assure Canadians that they are well protected, based on the execution of defense operations seen between Canada and the United States.
“That’s a perfect example of how seamlessly we work together.”
True North recently reported that Canada was upgrading a military airstrip in Inuvik as part of ongoing upgrades to its air force presence in northern Canada.
