Trudeau doesn’t care about defence
DON’T BE FOOLED BY SPENDING ANNOUNCEMENT
On Monday, the day of the total solar eclipse, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau donned a pair of blackout glasses. Not to stare at the sun, but to avoid seeing what is right in front of him: his abject failure to rebuild Canada’s Armed Forces.
Trudeau chose Monday morning to announce defence spending plans of $8.1 billion over five years and $73 billion over 20 years, to be included in the upcoming Budget 2024. Sounds like a lot, but a 20-year spending horizon for anything is laughable in political terms: no government lives long enough to see that through unless they’re the Communist Party of China. And when you do the math, it’s a drop in the proverbial bucket compared with what our nation needs.
Here are the facts. The Canadian military is short 16,000 troops. According to a 2023 Defence Department report, only 58 per cent of current personnel are sufficiently trained to be deployed, and half our equipment is “unavailable or unserviceable.” Our four diesel submarines, key to defending our Arctic, date from the 1990s and two spent the last four years in dry dock. In the words of former vice-admiral Mark Norman, this situation is “borderline atrocious.”
So clearly Trudeau had to do something. But “kicking the can down the road” until after the next election, as Conservative defence critic James Bezan put it, isn’t the answer. And the rest of the world knows it, too.
The reaction from our allies to Trudeau’s announcement was far from a ringing endorsement. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told the Toronto Star the increase is “a step in the right direction,” but added all allies have committed to meeting the NATO annual spending target of two per cent of GDP. “I count on Canada to reach this target as soon as possible — both for its own security, and for the Alliance’s,” he said.
The response of U.S. Ambassador David Cohen was a bit better, but carefully worded. “The policy appears to articulate a substantial down payment toward Canada’s pledge to meet its NATO commitment to spend at least two per cent of its GDP on defence . ... Moving from 1.33 per cent to 1.76 per cent by 2029-2030 is real progress, and we are also encouraged by the assurances we have received that there will be additional investments.”
But those “assurances” mean squat if Trudeau’s government isn’t around to deliver them. Or if democratic President Joe Biden isn’t in the White House to receive them. We know where presumptive Republican contender Donald Trump stands on NATO laggards: he’d feed them to the Russian wolves. We also know there is a strong likelihood the world will be at war in the coming years.
The alarm is sounding everywhere. A Canadian military intelligence report revealed last year that Russia and China already consider themselves at war with the West. Last week, Beijing sent a warning shot to the Philippines, threatening that a Third World War could start over its claims to the South China Sea.
Even if Canada is not engaged in armed conflict, we present a target-rich environment. Our resource-rich northern reaches lie unpopulated and under-defended, prime real estate for Russian and Chinese imperialist designs. As the Arctic ice melts, they become increasingly accessible to ships, submarines, and hostile powers who would claim them as their own.
Trudeau said the government will “explore options” for purchasing new submarines to defend the region. This gives hope that the Navy may finally get nuclear-powered subs, but why the government needs to explore things, when the Navy has already asked for 12 conventionally powered subs, is a mystery — or maybe, it isn’t.
For when you review his other spending announcements of the past 10 days, it’s clear where Trudeau’s priorities lie, and defence isn’t anywhere near the top of the list. Since March 27, he has promised $56 billion in loans for daycare spots and rental housing construction, $17.5 billion in spending on rent and housing support, and one billion for kids’ breakfast programs. Budget 2024 is all about bribing Canadians with their own money. And the full reveal is still one week away.
DEFENCE ISN’T ANYWHERE NEAR THE TOP OF THE LIST.