Canada should be following the example of our Eastern European allies – who are showing how serious nations prepare for a destabilizing world.
Canada currently spends roughly 1.37% of its GDP on national defence.
This is far below the 2% NATO target Canada committed to hit quite some time ago.
This unwillingness to take our national defence seriously has drawn the ire of our allies, and rightfully so.
While the Liberal government talks a good game when it comes to ‘defending the rules-based-international-order,’ they fail to back up that talk with action.
Hostile authoritarian states can’t be held in check with good intentions, and we can’t make our allies stronger through words alone.
Defending the free world and dissuading aggression from authoritarian states like Russia, China, and Iran requires possessing real military capabilities.
Unfortunately, the Liberal government announced that Canada would only hit the 2% target in 2032, by which time a significant global conflict may already have occurred.
To understand how absurd this is, consider that the Liberals have – this year alone – pledged tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to EV companies, money that could have gone towards hitting the NATO target.
Nothing is stopping us from hitting the target.
Our country can afford it, and we could do so without a significant increase in the budget deficit if we were willing to exercise fiscal restraint elsewhere.
Failing to hit the target is a choice.
It’s choice to put more of the burden of our defence on our allies.
It’s a choice to put our Citizens at higher risk.
And it’s a choice to make the NATO alliance weaker overall, and thus incentivize aggression from hostile states.
As Canada dithers on national defence spending, other countries are choosing to live up to – and exceed – their commitments:
“Poland will spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2025, the foreign minister told Bloomberg Television in an interview broadcast on Friday evening.
Warsaw has already ramped up defence spending to more than 4% of its economic output this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Poland spends 4 (percent of GDP on defence) and we are going to spend 5 next year,” Radoslaw Sikorski said. “We are number one in NATO including the United States, in proportion obviously, because we are no longer in eternal post-Cold War peace.””
Poland is showing tremendous leadership here.
They are showing what it means to take things seriously.
They are showing what it means to be a strong ally.
And the contrast between Canada and Poland shames our nation.
The Liberal government is effectively saying that it will take Canada EIGHT YEARS to increase defence spending by 0.63% of GDP, while Poland is increasing their defence spending by 1% of GDP in ONE YEAR.
Canada has a larger overall economy than Poland.
We have a higher per capita GDP than Poland.
If Poland can afford to raise their military spending by a full 1% in one year, we can raise ours 0.63% in one year.
There is zero excuse for Canada to be below the 2% minimum, and there’s no excuse for us to not exceed that and get to 2.5% or 3%.
We are lucky to have strong allies like Poland who take their NATO commitments seriously, and it’s long past time for us to reciprocate and pull our weight.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
