It's obvious that we're in a geopolitical era that is marked by conflict, tension and possible outright conflict as we see that Russia invaded NATO airspace this week, last week and the week before. It feels like we are getting closer to conflict. The U.S. secretary of war just invited all the generals to D.C. to warn them to prepare for war.
How we won wars in the past was by having a better defence manufacturing base able to produce more and out-compete and outlast the competition. We have, in the last 20 years, very much globalized supply chains. China has absolutely been strategic in taking advantage of that and dominating some important supply chains that are essential. They're critical, as we call them.
We at least need to focus on being able to be independent in our defence manufacturing base. We cannot allow China, number one, but also other adversaries to control what we can produce and to hamper that production.
That's why we need to act with some urgency here. Not a lot of our NATO allies have the ability to do that, but Canada does.