Who the hell is Canada planning on going to war with? The last time I checked, nobody had been able to challenge Canada's existing tens of billions of dollars on a weapons platform that will never be used to its potential.

You can do ground attacks on the Taliban with F-18/F-16s for the next 50 years. Unless Canada is thinking about warring Russia over International hockey, you guys are unlikely to need air superiority.

Since WWII, Canada has only fought in wars they were drug into by the US, if you can't see the irony of the US selling you weapons to help us clean up our FA messes, well - disregard this.