Canada’s new defence policy isn’t winning America over: analysts

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OTTAWA — The Liberal government’s new defence policy has landed with a resounding thud in Washington and it could be a sign that U.S. politicians are losing patience with Canada’s stinginess on defence spending, analysts say. 

A letter released Thursday by 23 Democrat, Republican and independent United States senators took Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to task for Canada’s defence spending, demanding that Canada meet NATO benchmarks requiring members to commit at least two per cent of their GDP to defence spending. 

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Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Canada’s former vice-chief of defence staff and head of the Royal Canadian Navy, told the National Post that Canada has not only been shirking its responsibility to our allies for decades, but woefully taking advantage of what he described as generously charitable levels of patience from the U.S.

“The current government are the ones trying to manage this problem, but this problem did not happen in the last eight years — this has been decades in the making,” he said.

“We don’t take defence and security seriously, and this is a manifestation of that lack of seriousness.”

The letter from the U.S. senators argues that the geopolitical situation has become more dangerous and will require historic levels of investment in alliances like NATO.

“As a founding member of NATO, Canada is a valued ally and has long contributed to essential NATO operations around the world,” reads the letter.

“However, the transatlantic Alliance now faces one of the most severe threat landscapes in its history. As a consequence, we call on all NATO allies, including Canada, to uphold their commitment to ensure a stronger, sustainable NATO by accelerating efforts to reach the two per cent defence spending target set by the alliance.”

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Canada has consistently fallen short of the two per cent benchmark. 

According to numbers released earlier this year by NATO, Canada’s 1.33 per cent ranks only ahead of Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Eleven NATO members — Poland, the United States, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, the U.K., Hungary, Slovak Republic and Denmark — all met or exceeded the two per cent benchmark.

“By the end of 2024, 18 NATO countries will meet the alliance’s goal to ensure NATO’s continued military readiness,” read the letter from U.S. senators.

“This is a historic investment in our collective security, led by NATO allies like Poland, a country that has already exceeded three per cent of its GDP for defence spending.”

Defence analyst Richard Shimooka said the letter suggests Canada’s attempt to sell its new defence policy to American officials earlier this month clearly didn’t resonate. 

“This letter coming after (Defence Minister Bill) Blair’s visit (to Washington) is a pretty good indication that they heard what they saw and said ‘nah, not good enough’,” he said. 

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Invitations for comment to the PMO were redirected to the office of Blair, who referred National Post to remarks made by the minister on Thursday — a little over a week after he returned from the two-day visit to Washington, D.C., to sell Canada’s new defence policy. 

“We are very significantly increasing defence spending in Canada. In fact, our defence budget will go up 27 per cent, next year over this year,” Blair told reporters. 

“We recently came up with a defence policy that I think applies a very significant and necessary focus on continental defence, which I would share with the concerned senators.”

Blair, however, gave no timeline on when Canada would meet the two per cent benchmark, adding the government knows it has “work to do.”

Canada unveiled its new defence strategy, Our North, Strong and Free, earlier this year, pledging $8.1 billion in new defence spending over five years.

The plan projects defence spending to reach 1.76 per cent by 2029-30, still below NATO’s benchmark. 

Every dollar that Canada doesn’t spend on defence is one that can be spent on other pressing priorities, Norman said.

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“That may be extremely attractive to the Canadian government and Canadian voters, but we’ve been funding a lot of our own domestic national priorities thanks to the benevolence, charity and generosity of the United States, who basically have been carrying the vast majority of the defence and security obligations that we should have been contributing more to,” he said.

Among the more vocal critics of Canada’s defence spending is former U.S. President Donald Trump, who famously called Trudeau “two-faced” in 2019 over Ottawa’s failures to meet the two per cent benchmark. 

Shimooka doubts there’s much appetite to increase defence spending — despite the very real possibility of another Trump presidency. 

“He practises grievance-based politics,” Shimooka said of Trump, who talks frequently of pulling the U.S. out of NATO.

“So what’s the grievance with Canada right now? Defence.”

Shimooka noted 10 of the letter’s 23 signatories were Republican senators, demonstrating Washington’s concerns are a cross-party issue.

“If it’s a widespread view within the U.S. senate and house that Canada is a laggard in spending and they’re not happy with it, you know that this will become a bilateral issue because Trump will look for a grievance to pick at, and this is an easy one,” he said.

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Maintaining a good relationship with Washington, especially one that could see a change of administration after the November election, is absolutely critical for Canada, Norman said.

“Our relationship with Washington is absolutely essential, not only to our security, but to our economic stability, and it affects more broadly some of the key relationships we have in Europe, Asia and elsewhere,” he said.

“We need to get our act together.”

National Post

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

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