Spending increase on military overdue
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is making some broad assumptions about the United States and its long-term future relationship with the rest of the world, but her commitment on Tuesday to elevate Canada’s status on the world stage through increased military spending should be welcome news to Canadians.
Freeland told the House of Commons the federal government is preparing to boost military spending while reaffirming commitments to international trade and climate change, in a speech widely regarded as a major shift in Canadian foreign policy.
Her comments were in response to the major shift of tone within the U.S. government since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The president and his government have staked a different course for the American people — ostensibly stepping away from an active leadership role in European affairs, while walking away from the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and most recently an agreement with most of the world’s nations to reduce its national carbon footprint. Traditionally a reliable partner in meeting ongoing global challenges with European allies and others, the U.S. appears to be retreating to the isolationist position it held 80 years ago.
Some change appears to reflect the president’s mercurial personality and should be viewed as temporary. Once Trump leaves office — either through impeachment, loss of the 2020 election, or presidential term limit in 2024 — the U.S. government will likely resume the role it’s held since the end of the Second World War. Why? Because it’s always been in the United States’ best interest to have an interest in the rest of the world.
Ironically, it’s only because of the Trump administration that our own government appears to be rethinking its role and possible leadership on the global scale. Canada has mostly pursued a policy of trade with the world’s nations and has been a friendly partner with other British Commonwealth nations, the European Union, as well as key economic players in Asia. This hasn’t changed in the last 60 years, no matter the political leadership in Ottawa.
But our military strength and presence have been allowed to atrophy, a decline that symbolically began with the cancellation of the Avro Arrow in March 1959. Canada’s military assets were purposely minimized during the Cold War with the formal understanding the U.S. would have our back if necessary.
Freeland’s declaration defines a new era wherein Canada would step out of the military shadow of the United States.