The premier of British Columbia has an additional suggestion for Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in dealing with U.S. tariffs: stop plans to buy as many as 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets.

Not long after Canada said that it would retaliate against President Trump’s sweeping 50 percent tariff on hundreds of Canadian exports with tariffs of its own, Premier David Eby questioned why Canada would pursue supplying its military with the warplanes.

“When your friend kicks you in the back, one of the first rules is you don’t then go and buy $12 billion of fighter jets from that person,” Mr. Eby said on Tuesday, citing roughly the cost of the first 16 airplanes. “It makes absolutely no sense,” he added.

Anger toward the United States has grown among Canadians in the 18 months since Mr. Trump launched a trade war. And now, many Canadians have started to question spending tens of billions of dollars with a government that is openly hostile to its economy and led by a president dismissive of its sovereignty. (As with most major weapons systems, it is a government-to-government purchase.)

Mr. Eby’s comments suggest the question will grow more urgent now that trade talks have collapsed, prompting Mr. Trump to impose another round of tariffs and threaten more. The renewed friction comes more than a year into a review, ordered by Mr. Carney’s government, of the F-35 purchase.

Mr. Carney’s office referred questions about Mr. Eby’s comments to the defense minister, David McGuinty. His office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the White House.

“A decision about what fighter jet to purchase to replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18s is urgent, and inflected now with politics and emotion in the face of U.S. threats and tariff impositions,” said Wesley Wark, a fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. “The reality is that the Canadian government can’t continue to sit on the fence.”

The F-35 purchase has been contentious since a Conservative government announced it in 2010.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who took power five years later, had campaigned to cancel the purchase over cost, but instead ordered a review — and ultimately increased the order to 88 planes from 65.

Throughout, the Royal Canadian Air Force has maintained that the F-35 is the best choice. Lt. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, the Air Force commander, told a parliamentary committee in January that, among fighters, the F-35 “is the only one, at this moment, that can meet all of the most advanced adversary threats we are seeing that are being promulgated and advanced technologically by Russia and China.”

One recurring argument for the F-35 is that Canadian and American forces jointly protect the continental airspace through NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. But Mr. Wark said Canadian pilots have always flown different fighters than their American counterparts throughout NORAD’s history.

When Mr. Carney took office last year amid threats to Canada’s sovereignty from Mr. Trump, he responded to Mr. Trump’s complaints about military spending with large budget increases, while also vowing to reduce the share of that budget going to American weapons makers — which he estimated at 70 percent of arms spending.

He has since focused the military on Arctic security, an apparent response to Mr. Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, and on deepening ties with NATO allies.

The F-35 debate reopened in March, when Mr. Carney’s government began reviewing how many jets to buy beyond the first 16, which are expected to arrive as soon as next year.

The only rival to emerge is the Gripen, made by Saab of Sweden. It lacks the F-35’s stealth capabilities and some long-range sensors but is considerably less expensive. Mr. Wark called the F-35 the “world’s most advanced offensive air weapon,” but also “a very complex machine, difficult to maintain and keep in the air.” He described the Gripen as “simpler, cheaper and more operationally consistent” and better suited to patrol and perform defense missions in Canada and the Arctic.

Days after Canada opened its review, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, the American who commands NORAD, testified before a Senate committee. He praised Canada for buying the F-35s, so-called fifth-generation fighters, but when asked what North America needs to defend its airspace, he said he wanted more fourth-generation planes — a category that includes the Gripen.

“Frankly, sir, we don’t need fifth-gen to defend our borders,” he told Senator Tom Cotton. “Those capabilities are better used overseas, where their stealth air-to-ground weapons and penetration capability are needed.”

In May, Mr. Carney said that Canada would buy a fleet of Swedish military surveillance aircraft, over two American bidders. Saab, aware of Mr. Carney’s Buy Canadian push, has promised to build an assembly line in Canada to produce the fighters — potentially for other countries as well.

No deadline has been set for the review. Cutting down the order while also buying Gripens would be a “win-win,” Mr. Wark said, even if a hard sell for both the U.S. and Canadian officials “who remain convinced of the need to buy the full F-35 fleet and staying close to the Americans.”