Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday said he was “embarrassed” to watch Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at this week’s NATO leaders’ summit, where Trudeau was dogged by calls to commit to reaching the alliance’s target on defence spending.
But Poilievre didn’t say if he will also commit to Trudeau’s pledge that Canada will reach the target of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence in eight years.
“It’s clear now that Justin Trudeau is seen as an absolute joke on the world stage,” he told reporters at a press conference in Montreal.
“I was embarrassed to see our prime minister treated like a human piñata by the rest of the NATO countries. They look upon him with total and complete ridicule. Canadians are tired of being embarrassed by a prime minister who prances around and preens, lectures the world, without doing his part.”
Trudeau travelled to Washington for the summit facing mounting pressure to provide a timeline on when Canada will reach the two per cent target.
American politicians in particular were openly critical of Trudeau. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called Canada’s spending shortfalls and reliance on the U.S. “shameful,” and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called the Trudeau government a “defense scofflaw.”
Canada currently spends 1.37 per cent of GDP on defence, and has only committed enough funding over the next five years to get that number up to 1.76 per cent by 2030.
Trudeau on Thursday said Canada will reach two per cent by 2032 “with confidence and assurance,” but gave no specifics on how that will be achieved. He also criticized the focus being given to the target that he called a “crass mathematical calculation.”
The Conservatives on Thursday did not specifically answer questions from Global News about Poilievre committing to Trudeau’s timeline, or if he would try to reach two per cent more quickly. A spokesperson instead shared a statement from the party’s defence critic James Bezan, calling the 2032 commitment “another promise Justin Trudeau has no intention of honouring.”
Asked Friday why he won’t make the same commitment, Poilievre said he needs to ensure there’s enough money available to achieve it first.
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“I always say what I mean and mean what I say,” he said. “I make promises that I can keep. And right now, our country is broke.
“Every time I make a financial commitment, I’m going to make sure I’ve pulled out my calculator and done all the math, because people are sick and tired of politicians just announcing that they’re going to spend money without figuring out how they’re going to pay for it.”
Poilievre says a government led by him would cut foreign aid funding to “dictators, terrorists and multinational bureaucracies” and eliminate waste and fraud in the defence and procurement departments, putting the savings into the Canadian Armed Forces.
He also said Friday he would get rid of the “woke culture” in the military to boost recruitment, but did not say what he meant by “woke culture.”
In pure dollar value, Canada ranks seventh among NATO allies, according to the alliance. But in share of GDP spent on defence, Canada is fifth to last.
Twenty-three of the 32 allies are expected to meet the two per cent target this year, but Canada was the only lagging member that had not presented a roadmap to reach that number until Thursday.
Poilievre’s office has previously said a future Conservative government “will work toward” meeting the NATO spending commitment, but without a clear timeline.
Defence spending has risen under Trudeau after falling below one per cent of GDP under Stephen Harper’s government, which Poilievre served in. Harper was prime minister when NATO first agreed to the two per cent target in 2014, which was meant to ensure burden sharing among allies.
But Poilievre argued that under that same Conservative government, military equipment was procured and delivered to the front lines of conflicts like Afghanistan more quickly than today.
“When the previous Conservative government was in office, we weren’t hearing these criticisms. Why? Because we were delivering — it wasn’t because we were spending more,” he said.
“Now, because Trudeau has wasted so much of the money we do spend, even the money we are putting to work is being wasted and we’re not getting the results. And therefore our standing in the world is in decline.”
NATO leaders and senior military officials, particularly during this week’s summit, have frequently pointed out the threat environment today is very different compared to just 10 years ago, thanks to increasing aggression from — and growing alliances between — actors like Russia and China.
The rise of additional threats like cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and climate change has also made the world more dangerous, those officials say.
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