Complacency on national defence is giving way to demands for action.
A recent EKOS poll shows 78% of Canadians want national defence to be given high priority, a significant shift from mid-2024 when 51% saw it as a high priority issue. At that time, over 20% saw defence as a low or middle priority.
Now, just 8% see national defence as a low priority, compared to 14% who see it as a middle priority.
American Unreliability
Canadians have been largely unmoored amid America’s erratic turn. Not only is American military assistance uncertain if Canada were plunged into conflict, but the American President has threatened Canadian sovereignty on numerous occasions.
Alongside China’s rapid military expansion, there is also the ongoing Russian Arctic buildup to contend with.
As noted by United24 Media, Russia is preparing for war in the Arctic:
“In 2024, Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his commitment to Arctic dominance by ordering the largest military exercise in the region’s history—Ocean-2024. The drill involved 400 warships, submarines, and support vessels, as well as 120 planes and helicopters—an unprecedented show of force. As part of the exercises, strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles flew over the Barents and Norwegian Seas.
These drills have triggered significant alarm. Since the Cold War, few considered the Arctic a potential war zone. But Russia is preparing for a future where ice recedes, natural defenses disappear, and the region becomes a battlefield.”
Defending Canadian Sovereignty
Canada must not assume the U.S. would help us if Russia encroached on our territory, nor can we allow our lack of capacity to put our European allies at risk.
We must be prepared to defend ourselves, and we must be a powerful ally to our fellow democracies at a time when authoritarian states are emboldened.
This requires a significant investment in our armed forces and domestic defence industrial base, an investment that cannot wait until 2030. With Canadians increasingly open to addressing Canada’s military vulnerability, the government must act. You can read more about what a serious Canadian military expansion plan looks like here.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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