Like some of you, my father would say “it’s time for a frank talk” whenever he needed to tell me something I did not want to hear. Back then, it was often a reminder that filling the gas tank was part of driving his car on Saturday nights.
Well, it’s time for a little frank talk with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada because he’s been eating too many free lunches lately. Canada is not paying its “fair share” as the liberals like to say.
This is the story:
In 2014 all NATO members agreed to spend 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. Eleven out of 31 countries now make it, but Canada still isn’t close at 1.38%. That’s up from 1.01% in the nine years since 2014, but it still falls between those exemplars of muscular self-defense Italy (1.46%) and Slovenia (1.35%).
Canada ranks sixth from NATO’s bottom in spending on defense as a share of GDP, and its spending on military equipment—i.e., weapons—is seventh lowest. Canada is a member of the G-7 democracies but spends less on defense than the other six.