The more the better.
U.S. President Donald Trump likes to hint at taking away things that already exist (like NATO defence guarantees and trade deals that are still supposed to be in force), and then offer to give those things back to you if you do what he wants.
It’s a one-sided negotiating strategy, as it benefits Trump exclusively, and is simply a form of bullying. It also destroys trust in the long-term, because if past U.S. security guarantees and past trade deals – including deals with Donald Trump’s signature on them – cannot be trusted, then future deals cannot be trusted either.
While we can’t control what the U.S. President does, we can control how we respond.
And a wise response would be to zig while the U.S. zags.
If the U.S. is in a moment where they prioritize isolationism and beggar-thy-neighbour economic policy, Canada should deepen our ties with fellow democracies and aim for mutually beneficial trade deals.
In short, instead of putting all of our eggs in the American basket, we need to diversify our trade and defence ties.
And a key part of making that happen would be to immediately pursue more mutual defence pacts.
Canada should reach out to the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, and other nations to sign mutual defence pacts, promising to come to each other’s aid if one is attacked.
We should make clear statements defending the territorial integrity of Denmark:
And we should look at creating a CANZUK defence pact, linking Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom, with deeper economic ties and a promise by all members to assist each other militarily if any one member was attacked.
Whether we sign one-on-one pacts or pacts with larger groups of fellow democracies, we should be trying to sign as many deals as we can.
And these deals should also come with defence industry partnerships. Canada can leverage our strong tech sector and strong aerospace sector to start building up domestic military aircraft and drone production capacity while sharing technology and best practices with our allies.
NATO+
Our goal should not be to supplant NATO. NATO is the greatest defensive alliance the world has ever seen, and Canada should remain in NATO and greatly enhance our participation in the alliance by building up our military.
Even without the U.S. (though we should all hope the U.S. remains in NATO), NATO would be a powerful alliance and Canada should stay in it no matter what.
With that in mind, our goal with new defensive pacts should be to supplement the benefit we get from NATO, and make it abundantly clear to any potential aggressors that even were NATO to be undermined, Canada would have strong allies around the world.
Canada must look at this dangerous moment as an impetus to take decisive action. We still have many friends and allies around the globe, and it’s time to deepen our connections with them to ensure we aren’t wholly reliant on a southern neighbour that is less-than-reliable as of late.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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