Canada Needs Strong Bipartisan Leadership To Generate Support For A Large-Scale Military Build-up
This is a time when serious leadership is a necessity, not a luxury.
We are the inheritors of a nation and a world built by serious people.
The generation that fought in World War Two managed to defeat fascism, and then reconfigure the world to confront Communism, build strong alliances of free nations, and expand free trade to usher in an age of prosperity unlike anything the world has ever known.
The ‘Greatest Generation’ was so successful – particularly in North America and Europe – that we have long been able to withstand poor leadership almost without noticing.
Our economies, militaries, institutions, and alliances were so strong and so secure that we didn’t really need much from our leaders to keep things heading in the right direction.
Serious leadership was a luxury, not a necessity.
But that is no longer the case.
Our institutions are crumbling.
Our alliances are at risk.
Our military is weaker than it has been in generations.
The Authoritarian Axis of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have the initiative, building up their military forces and dividing us from within as we bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine.
Old & dangerous ideas are making a comeback, with anti-Semitism surging, and far-left and far-right extremists gaining ground on seemingly a daily basis. Our liberal democratic system – the best system for organizing society in human history – is under assault on multiple fronts.
The world we live in vs the world we wish we lived in
There is always a gap between the world we wish we lived in, and the world we live in. In normal times, a little delusion isn’t a big problem. After all, if the economy is strong and we are more powerful than our external enemies, it doesn’t matter if people live in a bit of a fantasy world.
But these aren’t normal times.
And being delusional now means being unable to respond to the myriad of threats we face.
Pretending that everything is fine, ignoring the rise of extremist ideology, and assuming China and Russia are building up their military power just for fun, is a level of delusion we cannot afford.
Of course, it’s understandable that many people don’t want to see where things are heading. People didn’t want to believe WW1 was approaching. People didn’t want to believe WW2 was approaching. Most people tend to hope – and expect – that things will turn out alright in the end.
But that is never guaranteed. And that hope – when it stops us from taking action – can be counterproductive and can paradoxically make what we fear more likely to occur.
This is where leadership comes in. While leaders in a democracy should spend much of their time assessing what the public believes and representing those beliefs, true leaders must also speak the truth about the challenges and dangers we face.
When threats gather at our shores, true leaders must make the public aware of those threats and the need to counter them.
Here in Canada, that means we need bipartisan leadership to build support for a significant military build-up.
In a recent report, the Parliamentary Budget Officer revealed that Canada’s already lethargic military spending is set to be even lower than expected:
“PBO forecasts that Canada’s military expenditures will rise from 1.29% of GDP in 2024-25 to a peak of 1.49% of GDP in 2025-26 before falling and stabilizing at 1.42% by 2029-30. This represents $39.0B in 2024-25 rising to $52.2B in 2029-30. While the first guideline of total annual military expenditures being at least 2% is forecasted not to be met, the second guideline of at least 20% of military expenditures for major equipment will be met (and exceeded) under PBO’s scenario starting in 2025-26.”
This demonstrates the fact that the Liberal Government is still failing to take national defence seriously. Their plan to hit the 2% NATO target by 2032 was already laughably slow.
The Opposition Conservatives have rightly criticized the Liberals for failing to hit the NATO target, but the CPC has not made a clear commitment to do so quickly. Clearly, both parties recognize that voters aren’t keen on hearing about the need for a significant expansion of our military.
But that expansion is needed.
A bipartisan or even tripartisan speech?
The fact is that Canada needs to immediately increase its military budget by around $40 billion.
We should use emergency legislation to bypass the broken procurement and immediately begin purchasing tanks, drones, fighter jets, and more.
We should spend billions more on military R&D, and we should be building military factories within our own territory.
We should reach out to allies like the United States and Germany to explore producing tanks within Canada, and we should be spending billions of dollars to rapidly expand already-existing 155mm artillery shell production.
We should increase pay for front-line troops, expand veterans benefits so people know they will be well-taken care of if they fight for our nation, and launch large-scale military recruitment ad campaigns.
All of this will come at a significant cost.
All of it will mean making difficult choices.
If we wanted to preserve our budgetary position while undertaking a build-up of this scale, we would likely need to cut – or at least freeze – spending in all non-defence departments.
Persuading Canadians to follow this path would require significant leadership.
In an ideal world, Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau, and Jagmeet Singh would all go in front of the cameras together and deliver a unified speech calling for a military build-up to defend our country and prepare us to survive in a more dangerous world.
But of course, we aren’t in an ideal world, meaning our leaders are unlikely to do this until they hear Canadians demanding it.
In this dangerous moment, Leadership will have to come from the bottom-up, just as much as it comes from the top-down. Person by person, Canadian by Canadian, we must be persuaded to wake up from our delusional slumber and begin rebuilding our defences.
Spencer Fernando
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