Mr. Speaker, we have heard ministers and the Prime Minister repeat over and over in recent months that a competition to replace the F-18s took place a decade ago and that Canada was part of it.
On October 26, 2001, the U.S. under secretary of defense Edward Aldridge announced its decision to choose the F-35. The member knows that Canadians at National Defence headquarters here in Ottawa were glued to their TV sets, as Mr. Williams, the former ADM has said, to see what Mr. Aldridge would announce. Canada clearly was not part of making that decision. It does not sound as if we were engaged in deciding which plane would be chosen.
We have the words of the chief of the air staff at the time, Lieutenant-General Deschamps, who said when asked about the CF-18 replacement, “We're moving forward hopefully in the not too distant future to establish a discussion with government”. He was talking about the replacement and what the government might do. This was in 2001.
Would my hon. colleague admit that Canada was not part of the competition a decade ago and had no say in the decision?