Prime Minister Mark Carney smiles as he climbs down a ladder into a submarine during a tour of the Hanwha Ocean Shipyard in Geoje Island, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
From a massive ad blitz featuring Canadian broadcast icon Peter Mansbridge to a cabinet minister calling on shipbuilders to cough up a car plant, the brief race to replace Canada’s aging submarine fleet turned heads in more ways than one.
The unusually short competition to build the navy’s next submarine fleet seemed to focus on everything but the boats themselves—even though the two vessels in the running are, in some ways, very different.
