It was a chasten Canadian delegation that departed the Washington summit, having been so sternly schooled on commitment. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Photo Credit: Justin Trudeau/X.
The 2024 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit this week was a serious and frank affair reflecting the world’s mounting geopolitical tensions. The 32-country defense alliance met to deliberate “how to continue to protect their one billion citizens as the world faces the most dangerous security environment since the Cold War.” Of gravest concern was NATO’s support for Ukraine in its continuing war with Russia and its axis of China, Iran and North Korea. There were equally weighty matters relating to the Hamas-Israeli war, the increasingly aggressive actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces with Taiwan and in South China Sea, and the CCP’s malevolent cyber campaigns.
Political pundits and military observers expected the NATO meetings to be particularly rough for the Canadian delegation. For years the federal government had ignored its allies’ suggestions to beef up Canada’s military spending. In April 2023 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told NATO allies outright that his government would never meet the alliance’s floor defence spending target of two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
In its 2024 Budget, the Trudeau government made much ado about increasing military expenditures, but its promised 1.76 per cent of GDP spending by 2030 fell well short of the NATO spending threshold. Andrew Leslie, a retired Lieutenant General and former Liberal member of Parliament who advised Trudeau on defence policy, observed then that the government is failing and NATO allies are “despairing” about Canada’s military preparedness. Leslie stated in a National Post interview, “The current prime minister of Canada is not serious about defence. Full stop. A large number of his cabinet members are not serious about defence. Full stop.”
Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, retired General Rick Hillier, was equally blunt to Global News, “The Canadian government has already heard multiple times from NATO, from the leadership of NATO, from the secretary-general of NATO, from all of the individual countries that are engaged … you need to stop being a parasite on the periphery of NATO.”
The Trudeau government’s insult to NATO allies did not go unnoticed, and leading up to the NATO Summit there were increasing messages of exasperation. NATO made public the data that revealed Canada is currently 27th out of 32 countries in defence spending, and it has failed to surpass 1.5 per cent of defence expenditure as a share of GDP every year since 2014. For laggard countries like Canada, NATO officials also drew a comparison to the U.S. and the U.K., which respectively spend 3.49 per cent and 2.07 per cent of GDP. Most pointedly in the data is the fact that, of the 32 member allies, Canada is the only country that has offered no plan to meet the NATO spending target.
In late May, David Cohen, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, in a Global News interview observed, “Canada has moved within NATO from being a bit of an outlier to being the outlier in the entire alliance.” The Ambassador was commenting on a bipartisan letter from 23 American senators to Trudeau that called for Canada to meet its alliance commitments. The senators stated they were “concerned and profoundly disappointed” and forewarned Canada about what to expect in Washington at the summit: “we will expect your government and every NATO member that has not met the two per cent defence spending threshold to have a plan to reach this benchmark as soon as possible.”
In a separate TV interview with CTV Question Period, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke of the NATO spending target of two per cent as a floor and not a ceiling threshold. He also forewarned the Trudeau government of its allies’ expectations, “We live in a more dangerous world, and therefore we need to invest more in our defence and our security. I welcome the increase you have seen in Canada over the last years, but I expect more.”
When Trudeau and his accompanying gaggle of ministers and MPs travelled south this week, they all were seemingly oblivious to the international commentary (or perhaps they thought they would bafflegab their way through the meetings). Their initial pre-summit meetings on Capitol Hill with U.S. Senators should have been another sign that the Trudeauesque politicospeak would not be received well at the summit. After meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senator posted on X: “Shared values and close economic ties have always been the strength of the U.S.-Canada relationship. But it’s time for our northern ally to invest seriously in the hard power required to help preserve prosperity and security.”
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson was more pointed in accusing Canada of “riding on America’s coattails.” Johnson made the comment about Canada: “They have the safety and security of being on our border and not having to worry about that. I think that’s shameful. I think if you’re going to be a member nation and participant, you need to do your part.”
When the summit commenced and it was Canada’s turn to address the forum, Trudeau proved deaf to any of the critical signals. As it was, Trudeau’s speech would have gone unnoticed but for Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly’s attempt at promoting her boss on X. Joly captured a video of the PM delivering another of his virtue-signally word salads – this one about the serious “security threat” posed by climate change.
Trudeau’s speech was filled with self-congratulatory remarks for his government’s approach to climate change; Trudeau avoided mentioning his government’s military commitments. It is embarrassing, yet amusing that Joly also inadvertently photographed Trudeau at the lectern, where it was evident Trudeau was speaking to a near empty room. (Like the waves he feigns to adorning crowds before entering the government jet, Trudeau never missed a beat in his performance, turning this way and that to the empty seats).
This charade was up abruptly however when NATO allies began their summit deliberations. Stoltenberg kicked off the meetings warning members against complacency and noted that 23 of 32 members had met the NATO defence spending commitment. Later in the meetings, Stoltenberg pressed that the “two per cent is not the ceiling, but two per cent is now the floor for our defence.” The long-held threshold was no longer to be a stretch target but rather a minimum requirement of membership. The NATO head said, “This is a result of a collective decision and collective responsibility.”
Stoltenberg was resolute in stating: “It’s not good enough what we do now. We will do the work. NATO’s main purpose is to prevent war and pursue peace by providing credible deterrence every day and to ensure that there is no room for miscalculation or misunderstanding. As long as you have that credible deterrence, there will be no one attacking it.”
NATO’s official summit declaration on Wednesday underlined the necessary minimum and possible increased defence spending across the whole alliance. The declaration is clear: “We reaffirm that, in many cases, expenditure beyond two per cent of GDP will be needed in order to remedy existing shortfalls and meet the requirements.”
One can only imagine how shellshocked Trudeau and Canadian delegation was with the no-nonsense approach demonstrated at the NATO forum. Within hours Canadians learned that we were to have new submarines – though this news came with no details, timelines, or budget – and that Canada signed a letter of intent to establish a trilateral maritime partnership with Germany and Norway – though the point was made there was no obligation for the government to proceed with an agreement beyond initial discussions.
Canadians also learned that the Trudeau government was prepared to provide NATO with a timeline for increasing its defense spending and meeting the two per cent of the GDP mark. Defence Minister Bill Blair said they would provide that timeline within 24 hours, but there was going to be no accompanying detailed plan or expenditures. Then Canadian officials hinted that there may be a plan.
And lo and behold, at the summit’s closing meeting, Trudeau announced the commitment that Canada would reach the two per cent threshold by 2032. Beyond promising a deadline date, he made no comments on how the Canadian government would achieve the feat.
It was a chasten Canadian delegation that departed the summit, having been so sternly schooled on commitment.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
