Episode #509: Tutor Tales - Ep 3: The Long Goodbye

After more than two decades of reports, promises, deferrals, and life extensions, Canada's Snowbirds finally have an answer — but the road that led here is a story all its own. In Part Three of The Tutor Tutor Tales - Mr Maillet brings you Canada's Enduring Jet, we as trace the long and frustrating history of the CT-114 Tutor replacement debate — from the Department of National Defence's own 2003 internal report recommending immediate action, through the Liberal promise that was never funded, the Harper years of near-silence, and the Trudeau government's $30 million life extension gamble in the wake of CaptainCasey's death in Kamloops. We examine the May 2026 announcement at 15 Wing Moose Jaw — the selection of the CT-157 Siskin II, the Pilatus PC-21, as the Snowbirds' next aircraft — and ask the honest question: after twenty-three years of deferral by governments of every stripe, what confidence do Canadians have that this time, the promise will be kept? The 2026 season is the Tutor's last. Sacramento, California, in October, is the final show. What comes next is real — but it still has to be delivered.