Hold on, that aside, the C-series wasn't "sold" to Airbus, it was gifted, for $1. That was entirely due to the US governments attempt to step in at the request of Boeing. The tariffs initially issued scared the pants off of Bombardier who gave the program away in lieu of seeing it wither and die by virtue of being locked out of North American aviation.

The US ended up backing off the tariffs because they were garbage and totally unfounded.

No further bailouts were needed. And in fact, in Canada, only Bombardier really lost. Investissement Québec retains a 25% stake in the A220 [1].

Globally, Boeing ended up the biggest loser for their inane meddling, as they don't have an aircraft that competes with the A220 -- and they gave one to Airbus free of charge. They then tried to cover their bumbling by trying to buy the regional jet arm of Embraer -- which fell through due to the COVID crisis.

Losers: Bombardier, Boeing.

Winners: Airbus, Investissment Quebec.

[1] https://www.investquebec.com/international/en/press-releases...

And Canada as a whole. The profits from the A220 will finance a new generations of planes and groundbreaking engineering work... from Europeans engineers in Europe!

Canada will be left out as a sub-contractor. It has about 650 total orders, and Airbus estimates 6'000 planes throughout the plane's 20 years lifecycle. All that because the federal government simply wouldn't intervene.

Are you sure? The plane is viewed as being advanced, next gen of sorts, and could influence future Airbus efforts a lot.

And anyway, Bombardier was doing some operations outside Canada, like the wing in Northern Ireland.

Bombardier operates globally (it has operations in a few provinces, the United States and Europe), but my understanding was that the A220 program's engineering was mostly done in Canada.

I'm afraid it might stop being the case.

You aren't wrong.

The aerospace sector has a long history of getting subsidized through either government help or military contracts. That's been true for Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed, Embraer. It's a strategic choice and investment that the Canadian government simply wasn't willing to make.