Published in Macleans.ca, February 3, 2012 Canada’s most monarchist government in decades has just dealt a serious blow to the Canadian Crown. In an effort to quickly enact changes regarding royal succession, the government has introduced a bill that undermines the concept of a truly independent Canadian Crown, the foundation of Canadian sovereignty.… Read More
Author Archives: Philippe Lagassé
Defence Procurement Problems Run Deeper Than the F-35
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, December 6, 2012 It’s been a rough year for Canadian defence procurement. This past spring, the Auditor General lambasted the defence department’s lack of due diligence in selecting the F-35 to replace the air force’s aging CF-18 fighters. A few months later, the acquisition of new army trucks was cancelled when it became c… Read More
Tags: Canadian defence policy, Department of National Defence, F-35, national defence, Philippe Lagassé
Succeeding to the Canadian Throne
By James W.J. Bowden and Philippe Lagassé The full article was published in the Ottawa Citizen, December 4, 2012 We learned this week that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their first child. The news was greeted with the usual mix of republican derision, monarchist fawning and celebrity gossiping. In governments across the Commonwealth, a m… Read More
Tags: Canada, Commonwealth, James W.J. Bowden, monarchy, Philippe Lagassé, Queen Elizabeth
The F-35 is Down but Not Out as Canada’s Next Fighter
The Harper government recently announced that the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat (NFPS) will be looking at various options to replace Canada’s aging CF-18s. This comes at a time when the news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the plane that the Department of National Defence (DND) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) favour, is facing… Read More
Tags: Canadian defence policy, Department of National Defence, F-35, Philippe Lagassé
After a month of lectures on Plato and Machiavelli, today I’m starting to teach Hobbes in my second-year undergraduate course on philosophical perspectives on conflict and rights. Personally, I find that this is the most interesting part of the course, except maybe for the two lectures on Foucault at the end. Based on my Twitter feed, it’s cle… Read More
First published on the Canadian International Council website. A new Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) was appointed by the Governor-in-Council last week. Following a few months of speculation about who would be named, Cabinet decided on Lieutenant-General Thomas Lawson, who had been serving as the deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defen… Read More
Tags: Canadian Forces, F-35, Philippe Lagassé, Thomas Lawson
Crash or Burn? The Conservatives’ F-35 Dilemma
Published in the Globe and Mail, April 3, 2012. In the wake of Tuesday’s expected report by the Auditor-General, the Conservative government’s hedging about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is likely to accelerate. After nearly two years of bold rhetoric and confident pronouncements, Canada’s procurement of 65 of these “fifth-generation” aircraft is now… Read More
Tags: Canadian defence policy, Conservatives, F-35, Peter Jones, Philippe Lagassé
Quels chasseurs pour le Canada?
A shortened version of this article appeared in La Presse on March 27, 2012. Le recul du gouvernement Harper à l’égard de l’acquisition de 65 F-35 témoigne des malheurs entourant le développement du programme multinational d’avions de combat interarmées et des contraintes budgétaires au ministère de la Défense nationale. Dans un climat de haute tension… Read More
Tags: Department of National Defence, F-35, Justin Massie, Philippe Lagassé
The Queen is the Canadian Crown
The full article was published in the Ottawa Citizen on January 9, 2012 Should Canada abandon its constitutional monarchy and become a republic? Several commentators and notable politicians think so. Accustomed to seeing the monarchy as a quaint symbol of Canada’s colonial past, many Canadians have been irked by the Conservatives’ blunt reminders that… Read More
Tags: Canada, monarchy, Philippe Lagassé, Queen Elizabeth
What Japan’s F-35 Decision Means—And Doesn’t Mean
By Philippe Lagassé and Srdjan Vucetic. The F-35 program has received mostly bad press for months—until the government of Japan made a formal announcement on December 19 that it had selected Lockheed Martin’s stealth design as the winner of a new fighter jet competition process. In the mid-2000’s, six aircraft were being mentioned as candidates: the Das… Read More
Tags: Canada, Canadian defence policy, F-35, Japan, Philippe Lagassé, Srdjan Vucetic
