At the recent NATO leaders meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump berated many countries saying they weren’t living up to their requirements to spend two per cent of the their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence.
Canada has long been lax in that regard. Both Prime Minister Trudeau, and former Prime Minister Harper have said that in spite of not meeting that target, Canada has lived up to all NATO requirements and missions.
It would cost Canadians another $20 billion to live up to that budget requirement.
A new survey by the Angus Reid polling firm asked Canadians what they thought about our defence spending and NATO commitment.
In typical Canadian fashion it seems there’s a split on the issue.
About 52 per cent said President Trump was right that members should spend two per cent of GDP on defence.
On the other hand only 40 per cent said Canada should be spending more. Some 53 per cent said current levels of spending were fine, and seven per cent wanted it reduced even further.
In other words, while 52 per cent said Trump was right, 60 per cent indicated Canada shouldn’t spend more.
The Liberal government is set to release its defence review policy on June 7, which sets out defence priorities, in terms of potential threats and how they would be met. It naturally implies defence spending priorities, it would appear however, that spending will be more on troops than new expensive equipment.
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