If you look at what we're using right now in the Canadian Armed Forces, it kind of speaks for itself. There are the Netherlands' old tanks, old British submarines. We're looking at old Australian jets. We have this way of shopping at the thrift shop and getting what we pay for here in Canada.
If we're going to be a G7 country, I think we have to stop having this preference for a Dollarama approach and remember that we're the ninth-largest economy on the planet. If you look at what Australia is doing in the meantime, they're the fifteenth-largest economy on the planet. The Canadian economy is 30% larger than the Australian economy, and we go around telling ourselves we can't afford to get this equipment and be out there in the world.
The reality is that if the Australians can afford it, so can we. It's just a question of political will and consensus building amongst parties, and using the podium. I'm speaking to politicians here. We can't just go to the electorate as though they are focus groups and deliver whatever they want.
Full disclosure: I'm a professor of political philosophy and war theory, not an expert on costing or ITBs. However, I remember teaching courses on Plato and classical political theorists. One thing that keeps coming up is the role that politicians have in being the educators of society, being able to go to the electorate to educate them on needs and requirements, so that they get informed and together we build a national consensus on Canada's role in the world.