Trudeau only shows ‘toughness’ versus Conservative Canadians, whom he loves to demonize. But when it comes to actually responding to the real threats against our nation and our allies, Trudeau does nothing.
Canada has seemingly never been as divided as we are today. While our country has often oscillated between a focus on regional divisions and ideological differences, today we have all both at the same time. Added to that, our core institutions are under attack like never before.
Trudeau has chosen to embrace a far-left governance style that alienates a massive portion of the country. Whenever he’s challenged on that, he doubles-down, further deepening the divide. Trudeau also has clear contempt for Western Canada, particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan where his party isn’t successful.
While past Prime Ministers like Stephen Harper managed to keep the country unified despite personal unpopularity in some regions (Harper was never that popular in Quebec but still governed in a way that addressed Quebec’s concerns), Trudeau takes his unpopularity in some regions personally, and seeks to punish those regions.
And now, with more and more information emerging about China’s foreign interference and efforts to influence our elections, Trudeau is doing everything he can to avoid an inquiry and hide behind the family friend he appointed to make the whole thing go away. This has added a further layer to the divisions within our nation, with Trudeau’s increasingly cult-like support base rallying around Trudeau’s cover-up while millions of other Canadians begin to worry that our government serves a foreign power.
It’s not only here at home where trust has eroded.
According to a Washington Post report based on leaked Pentagon documents, Trudeau told NATO that Canada will “never” hit our NATO spending targets. And our allies aren’t happy about it:
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told NATO officials privately that Canada will never meet the military alliance’s defense-spending target, according to a leaked secret Pentagon assessment obtained by The Washington Post. The document’s anonymous authors say Canada’s “widespread” military deficiencies are harming ties with security partners and allies.
The document, which has not been previously reported on, says “enduring” defense shortfalls led the Canadian Armed Forces to assess in February that it “could not conduct a major operation while simultaneously maintaining its NATO battle group leadership [in Latvia] and aid to Ukraine” — and that the situation was not “likely” to change without a shift in public opinion.
The United States and Canada, neighbors and close NATO allies, share responsibility for defending the continent as partners in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Washington has long pressed Ottawa to boost its spending on defense and hasten plans to upgrade military capabilities and infrastructure in the Arctic, where officials of both countries warn that Russia and China are being more assertive.”
The document further states, “Widespread defense shortfalls hinder Canadian capabilities,” the document says, “while straining partner relationships and alliance contributions.”
Years ago, a skeptical view towards NATO was more widespread in both North America and Europe. Even France’s President Emmanuel Macron was questioning the alliance, along with U.S. President Donald Trump.
But since then, we have witnessed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and open threats towards NATO members, along with China’s massive military build-up, increased aggression, increased foreign interference attempts, dishonesty regarding the spread of Covid-19.
Both China and Russia are seeking to build up their forces in the Arctic, and Russia is continuing to spend in the region even amid their immense losses of material and manpower in Ukraine.
Clearly, NATO is more important and more necessary than ever, and Canada’s lack of a contribution to the alliance is a disgrace.
Canada is a technologically advanced nation with a strong tech sector, a strong aerospace sector, and the potential to be completely self-sufficient in energy. Thanks to the United States, we don’t have a land border to worry about. Thus, there is nothing stopping us from having an large and advanced air force and small but highly-equipped ground forces. Further, given the increased use of drones and advanced missiles in warfare, we don’t need massive manpower to build to a lethal military force. But instead of taking advantage of these opportunities, Trudeau has allowed our military to continue to wither away.
In a dangerous world, we must be able to count on our allies, and our allies must be able to count on us. How can we ask for the United States to defend us when we seem unwilling to defend ourselves?
How can we posture as defenders of freedom and democracy if we don’t have the hard power to back it up?
The fact remains that the world isn’t a nice place. At the end of the day, if a country wants to be secure, it must make a lot of money, and spend a portion of that money on weapons designed to kill other human beings along with hiring people to use those weapons. That’s what the military exists to do. It doesn’t exist to be politically-correct. It doesn’t exist to be nice. It exists to kill other people if necessary in order to defend our country and defend our allies. Ironically, history shows that the more a nation shows the capability to wield a powerful military force, the less likely it is to be used. Ruthless dictators seek to expand their power when the sense weakness, not strength.
Trudeau and his cronies don’t understand this. They have a weird mix of aggression and naivety, where they are aggressive only in attacking Canadian Conservatives, while being naïve towards actual threats like China and Russia.
Clearly, Trudeau doesn’t have what it takes to lead in a dangerous world, and the longer he remains in power the more our nation is threatened both from within and from without.
Spencer Fernando
