The Trudeau Government Blows Smoke While Wasting NATO's Time

NATO should just turf Canada but that disentanglement might be what China is looking for:

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.

(Sidebar: not since 2015.)

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U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen says Canada may soon become the only NATO member failing to meet the minimum defence spending requirement of 2 percent.

“At the end of 2024, the way projections are looking, Canada will be the only country in NATO that is not spending at least 2 percent of its GDP on defence and does not have a plan to get there,” Mr. Cohen said in a May 26 interview with Global News. “Canada has moved within NATO from being a bit of an outlier to being the outlier in the entire alliance.”

His remarks come two days after a bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators wrote a letter urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet Canada’s NATO spending obligations.

Canada under Trudeau has not taken any form of defense or spending for which seriously:

 The first 16 of the air force's new F-35 fighters will be paid for out of the current federal budget, even though Canada isn't expected to take delivery of the warplanes until 2026.

Defence Minister Bill Blair pointed to the investment on Monday while defending the Liberal government's military spending plans before a House of Commons committee.

In testimony to Congress, a senior U.S. military official warned late last year that the delivery of stealth fighters ordered by Canada and other allies might be delayed because of ongoing technical problems with the aircraft.

When life gives one lemons, one buys them and pretends that they are sufficient for defense.