Canada must quickly ramp up its defense spending to reach the NATO target while also weaning itself off US-made equipment, contenders to replace Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
The four candidates — Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, Karina Gould and Frank Baylis — sparred over how fast Canada could realistically roll out the billions of dollars in new annual spending it would take to reach NATO’s threshold of 2 percent of GDP.
“We really need to act with the fierce urgency of now,” said Freeland, citing US President Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada the US’ 51st state. “I don’t think any of us wants to be the leader who was asleep at the wheel and didn’t get Canada defended.”
Photo: AFP
The government should spend as much of that money as possible within Canada, she added.
Canada must “protect our arctic, which is under threat not just now from the Russians and the Chinese, but from potential US incursions,” Carney said.
He agreed that Canada must boost its defense spending, but said it should also “leverage all of our assets from critical minerals to clean energy and well beyond to harden those partnerships in Europe and in Asia with like-minded countries.”
The comments came in the second and final debate of the Liberal Party leadership race, which is set to conclude on March 9.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, is widely seen as the front-runner.
His chief rival is Freeland, a former finance minister whose resignation in December last year effectively finished Trudeau’s political career.
Canada last year was projected to spend about 1.33 percent of its GDP on defense.
Trudeau in July last year announced that Canada did not plan to reach the 2 percent target until 2032.
Freeland and Gould have promised to accelerate that deadline to 2027 and Gould attacked Carney for his own vow to get there by 2030.
“We don’t have time to wait for this,” she said.
Baylis said that he does not see 2027 as realistic.
“I don’t think that’s doable in an intelligent way,” he said, adding that it is difficult to do major procurement projects — especially if that procurement is restricted to Canadian firms.
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