Most of that was due to Harper and his group of thieving syncophants.

(In 2006-2009) Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the next phase of JSF development under a Conservative government, expected to cost US$551 million through 2051. Canada emphasized that the commitment does not mean Canada would purchase the plane.

(In early 2010) Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Commons that Canada would buy the F-35. Ninety minutes later, he said he misspoke and announced there will be an open competition with all aircraft considered. Six weeks later, ignoring what he previously said, MacKay announced that Canada will purchase 65 F-35s. The cost was estimated by the government as $9 billion. Deliveries were to begin in 2016.

In April 2012, with the release of a highly critical Auditor General of Canada report on the failures of the government's F-35 program, the procurement was labelled a national "scandal" and "fiasco" by the media.

The F-35 did not feature in the Harper government's federal budget tabled in March 2012 and was not mentioned in the Conservative Party 2015 election platform.

In a December 2014 analysis of the procurement Ottawa Citizen writer Michael Den Tandt cited the Harper government's "ineptitude, piled upon ineptitude, and bureaucracy, and inertia, driving a lack of progress".

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