Canadian drone industry experts will tell you Canada is behind. Richard Shimooka will tell you exactly how far, and it is not a comfortable number.

There is a version of Canada that orders parts and figures it out as it goes. There is also the version where you need trained personnel, supply chains, doctrine, and demand signals from a government that spent decades not providing any of them. One of those is the version we actually have.

The money is finally arriving. Shimooka’s argument is that arriving with money and arriving ready to spend it well are completely different things, and Canada needs to know the difference before the cheques clear.

Topics: Canadian drone industry, Canada defence spending, military drone technology, defence industrial strategy, undersea drone capabilities

GUEST: Richard Shimooka | MacDonald Laurier Institute

Originally aired on2026-04-21