Trudeau and Poilievre dance on a volcano

If you want peace, prepare for war.

It’s been a long time since this adage seemed so relevant.

The return of great power nationalism and the ongoing geopolitical reorganization are forcing us to make national security and defense issues a priority.

Yet Canada is dithering and, if it is moving in the right direction, it is doing so at a snail’s pace.

On Monday, 62 Canadian personalities who have national security at heart took up the pen to deplore it.

Former defense ministers, former chiefs of staff and several ex-politicians, civil servants and diplomats claim that “the country’s national security and defense” are “at risk”.

If they are sounding the alarm, it is that the recent federal budget was frankly disappointing in terms of the investments expected in defence. There are hardly any new expenditures.

It’s discouraging.

It’s true, Canada has been in catch-up mode for a few years. We announced the purchase of new combat aircraft and investments to modernize the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), for example.

But the gap had widened so much over the previous two decades that the federal government needs to press the accelerator even harder.

“Years of cutbacks, cost-cutting, downsizing and deferred investment have resulted in an atrophy of Canada’s defense capabilities. Our military capabilities are outdated and woefully inadequate to protect our landmass and our maritime spaces,” summarize the signatories of the letter in question.

It would be wrong to take their concerns lightly or to think that they are warmongering rantings.

Just as it would be wrong to think that Canada is immune to threats.

First of all, an aggression like the Russian attack against Ukraine concerns us first and foremost and requires our involvement via the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

But defending the sovereignty of our territory also poses a problem. The overflight of our territory by a Chinese spy balloon and the multiplication of cyberattacks demonstrate both that we are threatened and ill-equipped to face the new risks.

Need it be recalled, moreover, that the Arctic is now a territory coveted by strategic rivals such as Russia and China. And it would be very difficult, currently, to dissuade them.

Or even to convince our allies that we are doing our fair share when it comes to defence.

Normal. To follow through on its commitment to devote 2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to military spending, the Canadian government should invest some $75 billion more over five years. A colossal sum.

One can understand the hesitations of the Trudeau government. Money doesn’t grow on trees. To invest more substantial sums in defense, it will be necessary to cut elsewhere. And that means, yes, tough choices will have to be made.

But it is the price that must be paid to defend our sovereignty and, more broadly, democracy in an increasingly chaotic world.

Let’s be under no illusions: no government, Liberal or Conservative, is going to increase military spending by $75 billion so quickly.

But Ottawa should increase its military spending decisively, while adopting a plan to reach 2% of GDP in the medium term. It would also have to find ways for this money to be spent, because it is still too difficult a challenge to overcome due to the complexity of the process.

To limit oneself to favoring the status quo is to fail in one’s responsibilities.

It’s the equivalent of dancing on a volcano.

Isn’t this, moreover, what the leader of the official opposition in Ottawa is hammering these days? Isn’t that Pierre Poilievre’s priority?

Uh no. The Conservative leader prefers to attack journalists.

His war against the CBC continues. After convincing Twitter to label the network “government-funded media,” he argued that it relays Liberal government “propaganda.”

It is not by waging this kind of war, as sterile as it is dishonest, that we will work for peace and protect the international order.