Backing away from a promise?

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals campaigned, in part, on what seemed to me like some pretty unambiguous promises; promises like …

… just in case that’s a bit hard to read …

… “We will not buy the F-35 stealth fighter-bomber” seems pretty clear to me, or am I missing something?

I only ask because it appears, over and over again, that Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan cannot or will not commit to keeping that promise. His latest waffling on the issue was a the recent CANSEC 2016 defence industry conference in Ottawa earlier this week.

iPolitcs says that “This is an issue in which Justin Trudeau either earns his wings as a new type of politician, or he ditches in the same sea of double-talk that swallowed up his predecessors. Either his government is running the show, or bureaucrats over at Industry Canada are – the ones who are still dazzled by the lure of industrial benefits for the Canadian aerospace industry if Canada only sticks with the F-35.“

I reiterate that I don’t know what aircraft is best for Canada. I do know that they are all hideously expensive … but I do know what a promise looks like and the Liberals look set to break another one. I’m guessing that most Canadians who voted for Justin Trudeau didn’t (and still don’t) care about deficits, because they think it’s someone else’s money, but they don’t like spending on defence and they may not forgive breaking this promise.

Rock, meet hard place.