With Trudeau announcing Canada will wait another EIGHT YEARS to hit the 2% NATO target, it’s time for our allies to mount an even more aggressive pressure campaign.
For a brief moment, it appeared the Liberal government was about to announce something big:
A credible plan to rapidly hit the 2% of GDP on defence target all NATO countries have pledged to hit.
The government hinted at taking just such a move, after a week of relentless pressure from our allies – including rare examples of open public criticism of our country for being a ‘free-rider’ when it comes to national defence.
Alas, it was not to be.
After announcing a vague plan to start looking into the process of reaching out to the defense industry to look at purchasing new submarines, Justin Trudeau dampened any hope that Canada was really taking things seriously.
Turns out, Canada won’t hit our NATO target until 2032:
“NATO is the strongest military alliance in the world. To protect that collective strength, Canada plans to reach 2% of GDP spending on our defence by 2032.”
NATO is the strongest military alliance in the world. To protect that collective strength, Canada plans to reach 2% of GDP spending on our defence by 2032.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) July 11, 2024
No, that’s not a parody account.
Trudeau thinks protecting the “collective strength” of NATO means waiting EIGHT YEARS to hit the bare minimum 2% target.
To say this is profoundly disappointing would be an understatement.
Trudeau simply refuses to invest enough in the Canadian military for us to hit the 2% target.
It seems to be some sort of deep ideological issue for him, as it is the only area he’s unwilling to spend.
The Liberal government has pledged tens of billions in subsidies to EV companies and battery manufacturers in the past year alone.
They don’t have a problem running massive budget deficits.
They don’t worry about increasing the national debt.
If they wanted to, they could easily hit the 2% target.
Military, Canada needs more of everything.
We need more planes, we need more tanks, we need more missiles, we need more ammunition production.
But despite all these areas of need, the Liberals refuse to take action to get to the 2% target.
This will cause further discontent among our allies, especially given that the 2% target may soon go up as reported by Politico:
“The original goal of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, first announced in 2014, is a highly volatile issue for the alliance — partly because one-third of the member nations are under pressure for failing to reach the target this year; and because Donald Trump hammered European allies that fell short when he was president.
And while a consensus is growing among NATO leaders that the spending target should now be higher than 2 percent, they can’t seem to agree on what the number should be.”
It’s quite possible that Canada will soon face pressure to hit 2.5% or even 3%, making our current spending woefully inadequate.
Justin Trudeau had a chance today to deliver a profound shift away from empty words towards tangible actions.
Instead, he delivered a profound disappointment that will leave Canada less safe and even less respected by our allies at the worst possible time.
This will leave our allies with little choice but to become even more aggressive – including threatening out trading relationships – to force the government to take our national defence seriously.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
