What you need to know about Bombardier and how it become a trade war flashpoint

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Now it's in Trump's crosshairsA Bombardier Global 8000 jet after an entry-into-service celebration event at the Bombardier Aircraft Assembly Centre in Mississauga on Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Laura Proctor/BloombergThis week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to issue a ban on the sale of aircraft made by Bombardier Inc. unless it moves manufacturing to the United States. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank,’” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday, the day before retaliatory tariffs from Canada went into effect. But Bombardier, a snowmobile-maker-turned-business-jet-giant with headquarters in Montreal, has deep ties in both its supply chain and customer base south of the border. Here, Financial Post explains how Bombardier grew then drastically pruned back its business over decades, what it does today and why Trump is targeting it in his escalation of the U.S.-Canada trade war.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountWhat are the origins of Bombardier?Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againLong before it built its reputation as a business jet behemoth and one of Canada’s biggest global companies, Bombardier got its start selling a new form of winter vehicle invented by its founder.Joseph-Armand Bombardier, a native of Valcourt, Que., built the first snowmobile in 1935 and brought his product to market in 1937.In 1942, he founded L’Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée and, in 1959, launched the smaller, sleeker Ski-Doo — which would have been named the Ski-Dog, but for a typo.Two years after Bombardier’s death in 1964, Laurent Beaudoin, his son-in-law, took over as chief executive, renaming the company Bombardier Ltd. in 1967 as its focus expanded beyond snow transport.Beaudoin, a chartered accountant by training, took Bombardier public on the Montreal and Toronto Stock Exchanges in 1969 and it was under his leadership that the snowmobile maker transformed into a sprawling conglomerate that encompassed rail transportation, watercraft and corporate aviation.In 1978, two years after it purchased a majority share in railway equipment manufacturer Montreal Locomotive Works, the company name was tweaked again to Bombardier Inc. And in 1986 the company bought Canadair, which developed the Challenger business jets, from the Canadian government — its first move into the airline industry.What does it do now and how did it get there?The Bombardier of today mainly produces executive jets for corporations and wealthy individuals, after drastically paring back other parts of the business over the years.Even its snowmobiles are no longer produced by Bombardier. The company put its recreational products division up for sale in 2003, and it was bought by the Bombardier family, Bain Capital and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, who formed a new company called BRP Inc.In the 2000s, Bombardier explored the possibility of creating commercial aircraft and eventually launched its ambitious C-Series program in 2008. However, the program was bogged down by technical delays and cost overruns for years.“The company nearly went bankrupt,” said John Gradek, an aviation expert at McGill University, noting that financial pressures forced Bombardier to eventually clean up its portfolio and refocus its efforts into one line of business.The final straw came when Bombardier garnered interest from a U.S. buyer for its commercial fleet, only for American rival The Boeing Company to file a complaint alleging dumping that resulted in a U.S. threat of 220 per cent duties in 2017. Gradek said this forced Bombardier to pivot and make a deal with Europe’s Airbus SAS, which became a majority shareholder of the C-Series in 2018 when it purchased the program for a token $1.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.By 2020, Bombardier had exited commercial aviation entirely to become a business jet brand, focused on its Challenger and then Global Express models.The transition has stabilized the company’s finances: Annual results for 2025 showed revenues rose 10 per cent year over year to $9.55 billion, and more recent filings show that it has cut its corporate debt in half since December 2020.Since current chief executive Éric Martel took the helm in 2020, Bombardier has beefed up its defence portfolio as well, making jets for military operations including surveillance and intelligence.Why has it been controversial?At one point Bombardier was considered a poster child for corporate welfare, as it struggled with cost overruns and received government support. In 2016, Bombardier was given a $1.3 billion bailout package from the Quebec government, and in 2017 the federal government announced $372.5 million in interest-free loans.To make matters worse, the company also faced a backlash in 2017 when public records revealed six of its executives were in line for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation (about US$32 million worth of bonuses), after laying off 14,500 workers worldwide.At the time, Bombardier defended its pay structure in an open letter, arguing that it must compete with countries across the globe to recruit and retain talent and that the year-over-year comparison of compensation was “inaccurate” as its executives had joined the company or assumed new positions at various times of year, with 2015 figures reflecting a partial year of employment.Still, Bombardier later said it would delay more than half its total planned compensation increase for the six executives to 2020, with the deferred amount only payable if the company were to achieve its and tie it to performance goals.“There were a lot of questions asked of fiscal responsibility and the financial management structure and processes at Bombardier that they had to clean up,” Gradek said.Why is Trump targeting Bombardier?The president’s social media post threatening to ban the company from selling its planes south of the border unless it moves manufacturing to the U.S. came the day before Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products went into effect and preceded the proclamations he signed Tuesday evening announcing upcoming import bans of certain Canadian goods such as motorcycles, alcohol and some dairy products.“This threat is clearly part of a broader escalating trade dispute between Canada and the U.S. and while it is not clear under what legal authority the U.S. could ban a single importer at a whim, this no doubt elevates uncertainty for Bombardier,” National Bank Financial analyst Cameron Doerksen wrote in a note Monday.Doerksen said he suspects this latest threat will not be de-escalated as quickly as it was in January, when Trump threatened to “de-certify” Bombardier Global Express business jets and place a 50 per cent tariff on all Canadian-made aircraft unless Canada certified several business jet models from Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp. and a key U.S. competitor. While Trump didn’t move forward with his threats at the time, Canada did certify multiple Gulfstream planes the following month. Karl Moore, an associate professor specializing in strategy and leadership at McGill University, said Bombardier is likely on Trump’s radar due to it being one of the biggest companies involved in integrated trade between Canada and the U.S.Gradek said he also believes Washington is trying to muscle out a Canadian company that has been outperforming Gulfstream. But a ban on Bombardier planes, if it were to pass, would be met with a massive outcry from American workers, customers and government representatives, he said.How much business does Bombardier do in the U.S. and how could a ban affect it?Close to 60 per cent of Bombardier’s business is in the U.S., which means a ban of the company’s products would be “a significant blow” to its income, infrastructure and resources, said Gradek.Moore said Bombardier could try and sell its products to other countries, but such a pivot would be difficult and likely take years.Doerksen said in his note that while Bombardier does not have a final assembly line in the U.S. and moving production there would not be a practical option, it directly employs around 3,500 people in the U.S. at several sub-manufacturing sites, including a plant in Wichita, Kan., where it prepares planes for special mission purposes, and in its service and support network.Kansas senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall defended Bombardier this week in separate social media posts. Moran said he had reached out to the Trump administration “to make certain the President is aware of the significant contributions of Bombardier to Kansas and the importance of its presence in Wichita to many Kansas workers at Bombardier and in the Bombardier supply chain.”The presence of Bombardier in Wichita supports a local workforce of more than a thousand employees, who contribute their talent and expertise to our nation’s defense and aerospace capabilities. This afternoon, I reached out to the Trump administration to make certain the…— Senator Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) September 7, 2026Marshall said he would fight to keep Bombardier’s more than 1,200 Kansas jobs, but added that more planes should be built in Wichita.I’m going to fight to keep Bombardier’s over 1,200 Kansas jobs. I’ve already taken that concern inside the Oval Office.We agree on the mission: bring more good-paying manufacturing jobs back to Wichita. America buys more than half of what Bombardier sells. If that’s the market,…— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) September 8, 2026Bombardier has a large U.S. customer base, including big U.S. fleet operators that have large orders in backlog, Doerksen said in his note.The company spends more than US$2.5 billion with suppliers in the U.S. each year and its aircraft are built with American components, such as wings built at a facility in Red Oak, Tex., and crucial flight control components made in Los Angeles.And Bombardier holds a multi-year contract with the U.S. Air Force valued close to US$465 million.The company has plans to grow its defence activities and its service network and will inaugurate a new facility in Fort Wayne, Ind., later this year, Bombardier said in a statement.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.