Collapse Comfort: Canada’s Defence Primes Fail in the New Era
Reimagining Canada’s Defence Future
“Great failures derive not from poor play, but from persisting with irrelevant strengths.” This chilling insight from Shane Parish should haunt every Canadian policymaker and defence leader. After NATO’s summer summit, Canada risks rearming with yesterday’s military— faster, better, more expensive— instead of prepping for tomorrow’s demands.
Decades of Underinvestment and Outsourced Innovation
- For almost 40 years, Canada has under‑invested in defence.
- More dangerously, the nation has outsourced its imagination to foreign actors.
The Canadian defence‑industrial complex is a derivative one: branch offices of foreign primes, licensed resellers of externally built tech, and procurement‑savvy contractors— not edge‑warfighting innovators. The latest policy, “Our North, Strong and Free,” champions “speed acquisition with trusted partners”— a thin dog‑whistle for primes.
Legacy Actors vs. Needed Leap
As Ottawa boosts defence spending, legacy actors—publicly listed, risk‑averse, familiar with procurement gatekeepers—will absorb capital. Their roadmaps, replete with acronyms and “made‑in‑Canada” slide decks, promise readiness, but offer entrenchment, not transformation.
Publicly traded firms, governed by quarterly performance, cannot deliver the disruption Canada needs in autonomy, space, cyber, rapid munitions, or Arctic ISR. Canada demands bold bets, fast iteration, and partnerships with dual‑use startups— outside Ottawa’s traditional circles.
Rethinking Procurement Culture
The world rearms in a new way: the U.S. pours billions into attritable systems, autonomous platforms, and software‑defined warfare. Ukraine illustrates asymmetric, software‑enabled defence. Israel, Estonia, and Taiwan harden systems with mesh networks and AI‑driven command and control. Meanwhile, Canada debates offsets and builds unused bases.
Traditional primes have a role but cannot remain the centre. Germany’s $29 billion tank purchase shows preparing for the last war. Canada must avoid that mistake. To meet NATO commitments and remain relevant in the 2030s, Canada needs a procurement culture that welcomes non‑traditional contractors, tolerates failure, and designs for change.
Turning Insight into Opportunity
Adopting this mindset will also nurture Canadian startups by rewarding the hard R&D required for cutting‑edge solutions. The world’s most successful countries foster close, collaborative ties between government defence requirements and private‑sector suppliers.
This is Canada’s chance to elevate a new generation of firms that can then export their innovations globally. The government’s role is not to reward familiarity, but to build resilience, deterrence, and capability quickly and differently— breaking the rule that a company that delivered a 1994 design should lead in 2025.
Canada’s Narrow Window
We have a narrow window to get this right. Let’s not spend it excelling at things that no longer matter.
Coauthored by Benjamin Bergen, President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, and Eliot Pence, founder of Tofino Capital, for Digital Journal.
