The Canadian Armed Forces is part of Canada's national security. We have a massive country. We are a fundamental NORAD partner, so we have responsibilities with the Americans to look after what they consider to be their northern territory from any incursions coming out of anywhere from China or Russia over the North Pole. That is our fundamental responsibility with our American partners and to do that we need assets such as fighter aircraft.
While Canadians may not feel these kinds of threats happening because they do not happen to us on a daily basis, I think our armed forces would say that they are very real and that we have very real responsibilities with our partners to the south to make sure that our borders and, by extension, their borders are very well protected, not to mention our responsibilities with NATO and our other allied partners.
I think I would just leave it at that, that it is an asset. Fighter jets are assets that are critical to not only Canada's national security, but to the security of the United States via the northern territories that we are responsible for.