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Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

Canada says it will look at increasing its defence spending and tacked on 10 more Russian names to an ever growing sanctions list.

By Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau
Mon., March 7, 2022

Riga, LATVIA—On the 13th day of the brutal Russian bid to claim Ukraine as its own, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing up at the Latvian battle group led by Canadian soldiers, waving the Maple Leaf and a vague hint at more money for the military.

Canada has been waving the NATO flag for nearly seven years in Latvia as a bulwark against Russia’s further incursions in Eastern Europe.

Canada stepped up to lead one of NATO’s four battle groups in 2015 — part of the defensive alliance’s display of strength and solidarity with weaker member states after Russia invaded Ukraine and seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Trudeau arrived in the Latvian capital late Monday after meetings in the U.K. with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Earlier Monday, faced with a seemingly unstoppable war in Ukraine, Trudeau said he will look at increasing Canada’s defence spending. Given world events, he said there are “certainly reflections to have.”

And Canada tacked on 10 more Russian names to an ever-growing sanctions list.

The latest round of sanctions includes names Trudeau said were identified by jailed Russian opposition leader and Putin nemesis Alexei Navalny.

However, on a day when Trudeau cited the new sanctions, and Johnson touted new measures meant to expose Russian property owners in his country, Rutte admitted sanctions are not working.

Yet they all called for more concerted international efforts over the long haul, including more economic measures and more humanitarian aid, with Johnson and Rutte divided over how quickly countries need to get off Russian oil and gas.

The 10 latest names on Canada’s target list do not include Roman Abramovich — a Russian billionaire Navalny has been flagging to Canada since at least 2017. Canada appears to have sanctioned about 20 of the 35 names on Navalny’s list.

The Conservative opposition says the Liberal government is not yet exerting maximum pressure on Putin, and should do more to bolster Canadian Forces, including by finally approving the purchase of fighter jets.

Foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said in an interview that Ottawa must still sanction “additional oligarchs close to President Putin who have significant assets in Canada.”

Abramovich owns more than a quarter of the public shares in steelmaking giant Evraz, which has operations in Alberta and Saskatchewan and has supplied most of the steel for the government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline project.

Evraz’s board of directors also includes two more Russians the U.S. government identified as “oligarchs” in 2019 — Aleksandr Abramov and Aleksandr Frolov — and its Canadian operations have received significant support from the federal government.

That includes at least $27 million in emergency wage subsidies during the pandemic, as well as $7 million through a fund meant to help heavy-polluters reduce emissions that cause climate change, according to the company’s most recent annual report.

In addition to upping defence spending, the Conservatives want NORAD’s early warning system upgraded, naval shipbuilding ramped up and Arctic security bolstered.

In London, Johnson sat down with Trudeau and Rutte at the Northolt airbase. Their morning meetings had a rushed feel, with Johnson starting to usher press out before Trudeau spoke. His office said later that the British PM couldn’t squeeze the full meeting in at 10 Downing Street because Johnson’s “diary” was so busy that day. The three leaders held an afternoon news conference at 10 Downing.

But before that Trudeau met with the Queen, saying she was “insightful” and they had a “useful, for me anyway, conversation about global affairs.”

Trudeau meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Tuesday in Latvia.

The prime minister will also meet with three Baltic leaders, the prime ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, in the Latvian capital of Riga.

The Liberals announced they would increase the 500 Canadian Forces in Latvia by another 460 troops. The Canadians are leading a multinational battle group, one of four that are part of NATO’s deployments in the region.

Another 3,400 Canadians could be deployed to the region in the months to come, on standby for NATO orders.

But Canada’s shipments of lethal aid to Ukraine were slow to come in the view of the Conservatives, and the Ukrainian Canadian community.

And suddenly Western allies are eyeing each other’s defence commitments.

At the Downing Street news conference, Rutte noted the Netherlands will increase its defence budget to close to two per cent of GDP. Germany has led the G7, and doubled its defence budget in the face of Putin’s invasion and threats. Johnson said the U.K. defence spending is about 2.4 per cent and declined to comment on Canada’s defence spending which is 1.4 per cent of GDP.

But Johnson didn’t hold back.

“What we can’t do, post the invasion of Ukraine is assume that we go back to a kind of status quo ante, a kind of new normalization in the way that we did after the … seizure of Crimea and the Donbas area,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to recognize that things have changed and that we need a new focus on security and I think that that is kind of increasingly understood by everybody.”

Trudeau stood by his British and Dutch counterparts and pledged Canada would do more.

He defended his government’s record, saying Ottawa is gradually increasing spending over the next decade by 70 per cent. Then Trudeau admitted more might be necessary.

“We also recognize that context is changing rapidly around the world and we need to make sure that women and men have certainty and our forces have all the equipment necessary to be able to stand strongly as we always have. As members of NATO. We will continue to look at what more we can do.”

The three leaders — Johnson, a conservative and Trudeau and Rutte, progressive liberals — in a joint statement said they “will continue to impose severe costs on Russia.”

Arriving for the news conference from Windsor Castle, Trudeau had to detour to enter Downing Street as loud so-called Freedom Convoy protesters bellowed from outside the gate. They carried signs marked “Tuck Frudeau” and “Free Tamara” (Lich).

Protester Jeff Wyatt who said he has no Canadian ties told the Star he came to stand up for Lich and others who were leading a “peaceful protest” worldwide against government “lies” about COVID-19 and what he called Trudeau’s “tyranny.”

Elsewhere in London, outside the Russian embassy, other protesters and passersby reflected on what they said was real tyranny — the Russian attack on Ukraine. “I think we should be as tough as possible to get this stopped, as tough as possible,” said protester Clive Martinez.
 
Melanie Joly said:
Canada is not a nuclear power, it is not a military power,” she told CTV Power Play host Evan Solomon. “We’re a middle-sized power and what we’re good at is convening and making sure that diplomacy is happening, and meanwhile convincing other countries to do more.

My problem with this statement isn’t the obvious one about the state of our military. It’s her statement about our diplomatic heft. She is thinking about a long time ago when we had diplomatic strength. That time has long since past due to the hollowing out of External Affairs/Foreign Affairs/Global Affairs by every PM since P. Trudeau.

She, and many other Canadians, is drinking her own bath water.
 
Canada will not be dramatically increasing Military spending. Inflation is going to cripple this Government's spending power over the next two years and the focus of which ever Government is in power will be dealing with that. Most likely through rate hikes and austerity not seen since the 70s/80s 😄

Remember when they said inflation was "transitory" 😉


I am hoping to get all of money out of this Government's hands ASAP, including all of my pension money. The payout cannot come soon enough 😬
 
It seems to me that the invasion of Ukraine has made Canadians increasingly aware of the importance of having a strong and capable military. Hopefully our politicians will stop dithering.
That occurred before before on 9-11...
The attention span of the Canadian voter for the Military is like a gnat.
 
Canada will not be dramatically increasing Military spending. Inflation is going to cripple this Government's spending power over the next two years and the focus of which ever Government is in power will be dealing with that. Most likely through rate hikes and austerity not seen since the 70s/80s 😄

Remember when they said inflation was "transitory" 😉


I am hoping to get all of money out of this Government's hands ASAP, including all of my pension money. The payout cannot come soon enough 😬
I fear you are right.

We're in the middle of a long, multifaceted economic crisis.

Governments will have to cut taxes and/or expenses to preserve their taxpayer's purchasing power and not crowd out investments that would restart the economy.

Or, accept that we live in a new, dangerous, climate-catastrophe-bound and de-globalized world, and that the consumerism we've sustained for decades is a thing of the past.
 
It seems to me that the invasion of Ukraine has made Canadians increasingly aware of the importance of having a strong and capable military. Hopefully our politicians will stop dithering.
It has also made people aware of just how vacuous the words of our PM and his coterie are. Just hope they remember for more than 1 week after this particular war ends
 
I look at the Ontario Government's recent changes to support Reservists and can already see HR departments trying to find loopholes.

Employees who are reservists and who are deployed to an international operation or to an operation within Canada that is or will be providing assistance in dealing with an emergency or its aftermath (including search and rescue operations, recovery from national disasters such as flood relief, military aid following ice storms, and aircraft crash recovery) are entitled under the ESA to unpaid leave for the time necessary to engage in that operation.

Unfortunately, nothing about leave - paid or unpaid - for training,
 
My problem with this statement isn’t the obvious one about the state of our military. It’s her statement about our diplomatic heft. She is thinking about a long time ago when we had diplomatic strength. That time has long since past due to the hollowing out of External Affairs/Foreign Affairs/Global Affairs by every PM since P. Trudeau.

She, and many other Canadians, is drinking her own bath water.
It seems appropriate to express here my opinion on the purpose of Canada's military, to call back the discussion we were having a few pages back ITT.

Yes, diplomacy. Of course that's how we like to envision Canada's role in the world.

But diplomacy is a multi-lateral affair. Would the sanctions against Russia have any effect at all had they been enacted solely by Canada? Or even only by CAN/US? Obviously not.

We want to project ideals of peace, justice, and democracy in the greatest respect of the most fundamental rules of international law; sovereignty, human rights, fair trade. But we can't do it alone.

We need like-minded partners. The NATO and EU member-states, of course, but it's more wide-ranging than that. Mexico. Japan. Australia. Even India, despite all its troubles, it is still a democracy and a respectable actor in the international community.

If we sit back and let all those partners fall to tyranny, however, who are we even going to engage with diplomatically? If European democracies fall, one by one, what sort of world will we find ourselves living surviving in?

Thus, in the absence of real military threats to Canada itself, I think the primary purpose of the CAF is to preserve and support the liberal, rules-based world order that we helped usher into existence just at the midway point of our history as a country.

We can't sit by as the world's democracies are assaulted, lest we end up isolated and weakened. We ought to be able to deploy ourselves beyond our own borders, to enable a positive contribution to a coalition effort without dragging down our partners. America's protection should be empowering, not debilitating.

If we don't have the air and sealift to cross the oceans that safeguard our homeland, the air defenses to shield our army, the supply lines to feed it, and the air support to enable its advance... I don't see how we can actually help our friends half a world away. It is not sufficient to concern ourselves strictly with issues of domestic importance, such as Arctic sovereignty and the oft-brandished ''longest coastline, along three oceans''.

In the words of the late great Colonel Sanders Teddy Roosevelt, ''Speak softly and carry a big stick''. Otherwise, our words will be nothing but pure wind, to borrow from Orwell.



Sidenote: to address the idea that Canada punches above its weight... yeah we should probably stop trying to do that. We're spread so thin we can't effectively take in and train people.
 
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Here lies our current problem with the PRes: Gotta pay the bills somehow.

We offer very little in the way of protection or cushion for folks when we ask them to serve their country on a part time basis. A lot of the people we recruit as reservists are working full time or are students pursuing a degree so they can be employed full time.

I look at the Ontario Government's recent changes to support Reservists and can already see HR departments trying to find loopholes. If we are going to have a Nordic socialist ideal of a "Home Guard" we need to ensure we provide the same sort of safe guards.
Years ago I had some interactions with upset employers. They were very much pro-reservist and tried to support not only hiring reservists but giving them time off for training.
Problem was maturity and human nature. Troops were calling their work on a Wednesday or Thursday saying they needed the weekend off for training, or last minute tasks/summer training. They were rightly upset about their employees "being ordered to train last minute".

The US system works because reservists are ordered to deploy or attend training. From what I can tell it's known in advance. In Canada everything reservists do is voluntary.

If we're going to protect reservists with job protection then it's only fair we figure out how to make said training mandatory and not when they feel like it e.g. providing a yearly training schedule (because it's not always the troops fault but the units).
 
Years ago I had some interactions with upset employers. They were very much pro-reservist and tried to support not only hiring reservists but giving them time off for training.
Problem was maturity and human nature. Troops were calling their work on a Wednesday or Thursday saying they needed the weekend off for training, or last minute tasks/summer training. They were rightly upset about their employees "being ordered to train last minute".

The US system works because reservists are ordered to deploy or attend training. From what I can tell it's known in advance. In Canada everything reservists do is voluntary.

If we're going to protect reservists with job protection then it's only fair we figure out how to make said training mandatory and not when they feel like it e.g. providing a yearly training schedule (because it's not always the troops fault but the units).
In some cases it's the troops not being open, if I need time off I have it booked in advance. Anything last minute I engage my employer to see if they cab afford to give me the time off.

Though sometimes the army messes up, I once had Borden fail to let me unit know my course dates changes to a week earlier, then call my unit asking where I am day 1 of course. To say the least I had to pick between my civi job and the army because my boss was none to happy about the idea of letting me go a week early.
 
My problem with this statement isn’t the obvious one about the state of our military. It’s her statement about our diplomatic heft. She is thinking about a long time ago when we had diplomatic strength. That time has long since past due to the hollowing out of External Affairs/Foreign Affairs/Global Affairs by every PM since P. Trudeau.

She, and many other Canadians, is drinking her own bath water.
You would have thought that the 2020 election for two UN Security Council seats for Europe and other would have made the point for her. Three countries ran for two seats: Norway, Ireland, Canada. Guess who didn't get in.

Yup. Our diplomatic heft is mighty. (Place sarcasm emoji here)

🍻
 
You would have thought that the 2020 election for two UN Security Council seats for Europe and other would have made the point for her. Three countries ran for two seats: Norway, Ireland, Canada. Guess who didn't get in.

Yup. Our diplomatic heft is mighty. (Place sarcasm emoji here)

🍻
But they sure know how to troll lol. That UN ambassador of ours sure knows how to lol.
 
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