Canada, it would appear, has been spending less on defence than it promised.
Blah, blah, blah.
Yes, it’s true, Canada has promised to spend 2% of its GDP on defence, just like all other NATO members. And like several other NATO members, Canada has fallen short. Canada says it’s spent 1.7% GDP and has a roadmap/timeline to get to the the 2% threshold. Others will say Canada spends just 1.3% and is taking a free security ride on the shoulders of the United States.
Differences in book-keeping and sophistry.
In an imperfect world, you have to start somewhere when making a comparison of NATO military spending among its member states, and GDP would seemingly be a natural comparison point. But it’s not perfect and not a totally accurate reflection of defence spending.
What skews the numbers badly when using GDP as a measuring point is the fact that some countries, read Canada, despite having a relatively smaller population than many NATO members, has an outsized GDP compared to those same members.
You’ll never hear it said out loud, but based upon real dollars and cents, Canada is the seventh largest spender on defence in the alliance. And given the fact that Italy has nearly twice the population of Canada, it spends a mere $4 billion more on defence, and actually $200 less per-capita than we do. So we’re pretty darned close to sixth place in the spending standings. And actually, Canada is sixth when it comes to per-capita spending in the thirty-two member alliance.
Turkey, with a population over double that of Canada’s, spends 2.1% of its GDP on defence. What messes things up, though, is that Turkey has a GDP of $907 billion, compared to Canada’s $2.138 trillion. Turkey spends $22.776 billion in real dollars on defence. Canada spends $30.495 billion, an over $8 billion/year difference. Put another way, Turkey spends $268.02 per person on defence. Canada spends $779.92.
But nobody dumps on Turkey, because they’ve hit the 2% target.
Canada has an obligation to spend billions on its NORAD commitments for North American continental defence with the United States. No other NATO member has that type of commitment. We’ve ordered 88 F-35 fighters for our airforce and tendered an order for eight new conventional submarines to replace our aging fleet of undersea boats. New frigates and ice-breakers have been ordered for the navy, some already delivered. The army’s turn is coming, and we already command a NATO battle group in Estonia
Canada, like all other nations, has to balance military spending with quality of life spending, something that it stands head and shoulders above all NATO nations, what with our standard of living, universal health care, and supports for the poor and disadvantaged. We are constantly ranked among the top three best places in the world to live, so I’d say that the balance seems to be fairly effective one.
In short, we have the best quality of life in the world, except for those pesky Norwegians who periodically knock us off that pedestal. That said, and despite the money needed to fund this type of society, Canada still spends the sixth largest total of all members in a thirty-two member alliance. To me, that’s pretty awesome.
One final thing.
When you look at the table, there’s a little bit of history there. What were all these countries doing back in, say, July 1940.
Two of them were enemies, Germany and Italy. Poland was overrun by the Germans n 1939, and France followed in May 1940. The United States was diddling its thumbs in one of their periodic isolationist eras. Only the United Kingdom and Canada remained to fight the axis powers in the west. We stood alone. Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, finally bringing the Americans into the war to save civilization.
Back in 1914, the German’s were busy invading western Europe for the first time. Canada was there right from the start. The Americans didn’t show up until 1917.
So, to close, I just want to say that I don’t need any lectures from historically ignorant American senators attempting to shame Canada into spending more on national defence. They might, instead, figure out how to present a mature democracy to the rest of the world, rather than the current Republican-led gong show that has become their country.
Because, when the chips are down, Canada is there.
Always.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 