Thanks FoxtrotAlpha18 for the informative post.
Both Mirage 2000 and F16 were a little bit under-developed at the end of the 70s - although the F16 had of course a couple of years lead.
Subsequent versions of both aircraft were more mature - F16C, 2000-5...
"Australia had been burned by the French in refusing to support a Mirage IIIO deployment to SE Asia in the 60s"
What a strange and new story - could we know a little bit more about it ? Why would a strong AF like the Australian one need support from a European one to deploy fighters to SE Asia (Butterworth I presume ?) They were not mature enough to move along by themselves ?
It's also true that Canada might join end of this year, let's wait and see. They should just cut the umbilical chord from US (Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow ...) Also please don't say "to please the French" because... french-speaking Canadians are not French ! (or next time I chat with an American, I will say : " oh I met one of your fellow citizens from Sydney" ....)
There might be also another terrific N°4 contract in the pipeline, and this time promise we will run onto the ceiling !