Ex-fighter jet pilot Stephen Fuhr is on a mission to change how we arm the military

Secretary of State (Defence Procurement) Stephen Fuhr speaks to journalists as he arrives for a meeting of the federal cabinet on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA — Not that long ago, former air force fighter pilot Stephen Fuhr was just one among many voices in Canada complaining about the way the federal government makes big defence purchasing decisions.

At no point, he said, did it occur to him that he would wind up in his current position — as the prime minister’s point person for fixing Canada’s sclerotic military procurement system.

“I find it very ironic that I was one of many that complained ... why does it take so long?” said Fuhr, 56, in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Fuhr knows first hand how the state of Canada’s military procurement system feels to people on the ground — how Byzantine government rules make vital equipment purchases move at molasses speed, leaving soldiers and pilots without the tools they need to fight a modern conflict.

The once-prominent critic of former prime minister Stephen Harper government’s management of defence — notably the original F-35 stealth fighter procurement process — is stepping up to change how the system works.

Prime Minister Mark Carney named Fuhr secretary of state for defence procurement on May 13, giving him a new, narrowly focused junior role in cabinet.

The Carney government’s focus on reforming defence procurement is happening as new threats emerge on the world stage — and as Canada and other NATO allies come under heavy pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up defence spending by a staggering amount.

Canada is also looking for ways to bolster its domestic defence industry and partner more with Europe as it pivots away from a more isolationist and protectionist United States.

For the first time in a long time, the military is a core government priority.

“I feel good about it,” Fuhr said. “Canadians are supportive of us being more involved in defence spending. There’s a big opportunity for our industries and businesses in defence and being able to pull our weight on the world stage with our defence relationships.”

It’s also a moment of uncertainty — for Carney’s government, for Canada and the world. Fuhr’s background in the air force trained him to prepare for the unexpected.

On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into major U.S. buildings, Fuhr was in Inuvik, where he was flying a CF-18 on force-projection exercises.

He spent the security crisis patrolling the Arctic skies as events unfolded south of the border, then was sent to CFB Comox on Vancouver Island, where he was kept on alert until Canada relaxed its air defence posture.

“It was pretty surreal,” he said. “In the moment, we don’t know if there’s more. We just know these airplanes are coming and they have to land somewhere.”

He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force for two decades and at one point was the CF-18 fleet manager at 1 Canadian Air Division.

Formerly a conservative-inclined voter, he made the jump into federal politics with the Liberals a decade ago after becoming frustrated with the contentious F-35 purchase. Fuhr warned that the cost of the deal was doomed to explode and that the process had gone awry.

He was right: the budget for the F-35 purchase has since ballooned and Ottawa is conducting a review of the project in response to the Trump administration’s trade chaos. Still, Fuhr shrugs off the idea that he would chime in with his opinions about the F-35 at the cabinet table.

“My strong opinions are 10 years old, and a lot has changed in 10 years,” the Kelowna MP said.

But he could end up helping to decide how the next big-ticket items roll out.

Carney made numerous defence commitments in the spring election. One of them was a promise to establish a new defence procurement agency to speed up equipment purchases for the military, and that agency falls under Fuhr’s mandate.

The party’s election platform pledged legislative changes to “expand risk-based approaches” to purchasing approvals, “centralize expertise from across government” and “streamline the way we buy equipment for the military.”

Canada’s military has suffered from peacetime budget woes under governments of various stripes since the Cold War ended. Major items of military equipment are nearing the end of their usable lifespan and new purchases are moving slowly through a risk-averse and slow-moving bureaucracy.

For the past half century, military purchasing decisions tended to involve multiple government departments. Carney’s plan for this new agency would create one main point of contact, as in wartime.

“We’re trapped outside the technology cycle, which is a really difficult place to be, and we have to get it done faster. It has to be more organized. It has to be easier for industry,” Fuhr said.

Canada, in other words, is pushing for a military comeback.

Fuhr is fresh off of a comeback of his own.

He became a Liberal MP in 2015, when he rallied support from unlikely corners like the local Green Party, whose candidate stepped down to endorse Fuhr.

A former chair of the House of Commons defence committee, he’s been around the political block. But he was defeated in 2019 by Conservative Tracy Gray. He didn’t run in 2021 but returned to the ballot in April, and this time he defeated Gray.

This isn’t the first time the government has tried to reform procurement. It’s also not the first time there’s been a cabinet-level position tied to procurement.

The Harper government tapped Julian Fantino as associate minister of defence to overhaul procurement, and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised multiple defence procurement reforms in the 2015 and 2019 elections. Neither government moved the needle much — and both failed to spend enough to address the Canadian Armed Forces equipment gap.

Fuhr insisted it’s different this time.

“If it was ever going to happen, it’s going to happen now,” he said.

He said Canada has to make a major “lift” to meet its alliance defence commitments and Carney “wants to get it done.”

When asked what he brings to the role, Fuhr pointed not to his time in the air but to his work on the ground with the military and his family’s aerospace business, SkyTrac Systems, which they eventually sold.

“I know what it’s like for industry to try and get involved in defence procurement because I lived that life for a while,” he said. “I bring a well-rounded skill set, not just I flew airplanes.”

Fuhr might be out of the military but he can’t stay out of the skies.

Right up until he decided to run for office again, he was testing and certifying pilots on instrument ratings, ensuring they can fly by instruments alone.

The retired air force major in his spare time flies a Vans RV8, an kit-built two-seater aircraft he purchased several years ago.

The small, low-wing recreational craft is painted to look like a fighter jet — he even has a shark mouth painted on the nose of the plane.

He may not have much time to get up in the air this summer. He’ll be in and out of meetings with officials drafting up blueprints for the new procurement agency, sorting out its size and scope.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press