Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what his government is calling a foreign policy declaration as much as a procurement announcement: Canada would no longer allow its national security to be "held hostage" to foreign suppliers — and that the country most squarely in mind is the United States.
The $6.6-billion defence industrial strategy, unveiled on February 17, 2026, promises to prioritize the domestic manufacture of military equipment, significantly hike the share of defence contracts awarded to Canadian firms, and generate up to 125,000 new jobs across the defence sector. The announcement, reported by Global News and confirmed by the Prime Minister's Office, was framed explicitly as a strategic pivot — not a budget line.
"Canada's security cannot be held hostage," Carney said in remarks accompanying the announcement, using language that, in the context of the current bilateral relationship, required little interpretation. The phrase carries unmistakable resonance at a moment when President Donald Trump has threatened annexation, imposed tariffs, and openly questioned the utility of collective defence arrangements.
In Canada, as Canadians would politely insist, we're more than just America's neighbor — we're a distinct nation with our own priorities. The defence strategy is perhaps the most concrete expression yet of what those priorities look like when translated into policy.
A Foreign Policy Pivot, Not a Procurement Announcement
The strategy's architects have been careful to position it not as a routine military budget update but as a structural reorientation of how Canada thinks about security self-reliance. For decades, Canadian defence procurement has leaned heavily on American suppliers — a function both of geographical proximity and of deep integration through NORAD, the joint North American Aerospace Defense Command, and broader NATO burden-sharing arrangements.
That integration is not being abandoned. Carney's government has been explicit that Canada remains a committed NATO ally and that NORAD is the cornerstone of continental defence. But the strategy signals a determination to build sufficient domestic industrial capacity that Canada's reliance on any single foreign partner — including its closest ally — does not become a strategic vulnerability.
Defence analysts in Ottawa and Toronto have noted that the timing carries significance beyond the purely military. The announcement lands in the middle of a federal election campaign in which the Canada-US relationship has become the defining issue. Governing as a party that has pledged to stand firm against American pressure, Carney's Liberals are making a visible bet that voters reward assertiveness over accommodation.
What the Strategy Contains
Beyond the headline figures, the strategy commits to increasing the proportion of defence contracts awarded to Canadian firms, with a particular emphasis on sectors where Canada already holds competitive advantages: aerospace, cybersecurity, communications, and Arctic surveillance technology. Northern sovereignty — a priority that predates the current crisis in Canada-US relations — is explicitly named as a driver of investment.
The 125,000 jobs figure is the government's projection for the domestic industrial workforce that a fully implemented strategy would sustain. Critics, including the Conservative opposition under Pierre Poilievre, have questioned whether the projection is realistic and whether the government can execute large-scale domestic procurement programmes without the delays and cost overruns that have historically plagued Canadian defence contracting.
The NDP, meanwhile, has welcomed the principle of Canadian procurement while pressing the government to ensure that any new defence jobs meet strong labour standards and that northern and indigenous communities are included as partners rather than afterthoughts.
The Alliance Architecture Question
Perhaps the most consequential long-term question raised by the strategy is what it signals for Canada's position within the broader architecture of Western security. The Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement, NATO's collective defence commitment, and the NORAD partnership have all been tested — at least rhetorically — by Trump's second administration. The Nanos Research poll released the same day as the defence announcement found that 58 percent of Canadians consider it at least somewhat likely that the United States will withdraw from NATO.
For Canada, which has long benefited from American security guarantees that allowed it to spend relatively modestly on its own military, such a prospect demands a fundamental rethink. The Buy Canadian defence strategy is best understood as the beginning of that rethink — an acknowledgment that whatever the eventual shape of the Western alliance, Canada intends to enter it with a stronger hand than it currently holds.
