The Canadian government needs to go beyond aspirational pledges, and do it before Donald Trump leverages Ottawa’s defence spending in bilateral relations
Philippe Lagassé is associate professor and the Barton Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Justin Massie is professor of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Donald Trump’s re-election in the U.S. promises to shake Canada’s complacency. The president-elect has made clear that he expects NATO allies to spend at least 2 per cent, if not more; his teamtold European officials that he will increase his demands to 5 per cent. Unfortunately, the Canadian government has not been transparent about how it intends to reach the target – and given our past failures to meet the mark, our allies are understandably skeptical that Ottawa will deliver.
Secondly, Canada could widen the scope of the procurement contracts it has recently signed. For example, Ottawa is planning to acquire 88 F-35 fighter jets, which is 50 fewer than the 138 F-18s we bought in 1982; for comparison, Italy, which is much smaller geographically than Canada, recentlyits F-35 order by 25 aircrafts for a total of 115. Similarly, Canada will be acquiring 11 SkyGuardian remotely piloted systems for both continental and international operations.
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