Canada goes to the polls on Monday...F-35 purchase hangs in the balance.

via Flight Global.

As Canada heads to the polls on Monday, Lockheed Martin F-35 backers will be quietly hoping for a conservative win after Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau came out against the troubled fighter programme in favour of more spending on ships.
Despite putting the acquisition on hold in 2012, the ruling Conservative Party says it would push forward with the project should it win on 19 October, with leader Stephen Harper saying to exit the programme would “crater” the local aerospace industry and miss out on billions of dollars-worth of future contracts.
Polling posted by CBC News this week shows a tightly contested three-way race, with the Liberals pulling ahead at 35.6% against the Conservatives (30.4%) and New Democrats (23.8%).

Interesting isn't it?  In order to save the Marine Corps from this budget disaster (and the F-35) we find ourselves depending on liberal, hippy, dope smoking hipsters from Canada.

My prediction?

The Liberals win, the F-35 project (for Canada) is canned, they instead buy F-18's, the Congress passes a CR and the death spiral picks up steam.

This is crunch time for the F-35.