Canada's military a 'welfare case' despite pledge to meet 2% NATO target
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This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged that Canada would finally meet its NATO commitment to spend two per cent of gross domestic product on defence this year, but is it too little, too late? In this video, the National Post's Terry Newman and political strategist Anthony Koch discuss the fulfillment of the long-awaited pledge, which former prime minister Justin Trudeau didn't plan on reaching until 2032.
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The pledge comes on the heels of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte proposing that member countries increase spending to five per cent of GDP, as advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump. The move to two per cent represents an increase of $9.3 billion and would bring Canada's defence spending to $62.7 billion. But is it enough? Canada's military was already woefully underfunded in 2024, with only 67 per cent of its force combat ready. On top of this, the Canadian Armed Forces has a recruitment and retention problem that Liberal DEI initiatives, including mandatory tampons in male soldiers' washrooms, hasn't seemed to resolve. If Carney is correct that, ' We are heading towards a more dangerous and divided world,' meeting our decades-old two per cent NATO target hardly seems sufficient given the sorry state of our Armed Forces.
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