Juno News - July 12, 2024


Justin Trudeau embarrasses Canada AGAIN at a NATO summit


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

162.86864

Word count

2,349

Sentence count

10


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Canada hasn t reached the 2% of GDP target for defense spending promised to NATO since the days of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Why has it taken so long for Canada to take this seriously? Why have successive governments failed to spend the necessary amount of money in order to have a functioning military and to protect our country? And why is this happening?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 when in canada justin trudeau gets hammered by the legacy media press with questions over dropping
00:00:12.080 poll numbers and his potential resignation outside of canada things aren't going so well
00:00:17.760 for justin trudeau either this week our prime minister along with quite a large delegation
00:00:23.040 of liberal ministers and mps are in washington dc to mark the 75th anniversary of the nato
00:00:29.280 alliance and since canada hasn't reached the nato defense spending targets of two percent of gdp
00:00:35.760 since the days of pierre trudeau close to 50 years ago nato leaders and u.s representatives have been
00:00:42.800 hammering justin trudeau and attacking trudeau over failing to live up to our commitment but you see
00:00:49.120 it's not just nato world leaders and u.s politicians attacking trudeau over this it's that canadian
00:00:55.520 legacy media press back at it again the press that he's worked so hard to try to buy off in order to
00:01:01.840 guarantee positive coverage who are also attacking him and his government over failing to live up to
00:01:07.440 their nato commitments and it all looks like the pressure has paid off bill blair earlier today
00:01:13.200 announced canada's plan to reach that two percent of gdp that nato defense spending target after years
00:01:21.040 of public pressure but the question still remains why has it taken so long for canada to take this
00:01:28.000 seriously why have successive governments failed to spend the necessary amount of money in order to have
00:01:34.320 a functioning military and to protect our country and on this show i'll be breaking down the numbers
00:01:39.920 and the statistics behind canada's chronic underfunding of our armed forces not just under
00:01:45.760 justin trudeau but also under stephen harper before we do that however be sure to drop a like
00:01:50.800 on this video help us out by subscribing to the true north youtube channel and the comment question
00:01:54.640 for the episode is this is increasing canada's defense spending a priority for you let me know
00:02:01.680 your answer in the comments below and let's get into it well the hits just keep on coming for
00:02:06.080 justin trudeau as soon as he landed in washington dc for the 75th anniversary of the nato alliance
00:02:12.400 speaker of the house mike johnson accused canada of shamefully riding on the coattails of american
00:02:19.120 security take a listen i contrast shamefully canada announced in the last few days or last couple days
00:02:25.360 that they won't be uh ponying up they're not going to do their two percent um why talk about riding
00:02:31.600 on america's coattails they have the you know they have the safety and security of being on our border
00:02:35.920 and not having to worry about that i think that's shameful i think if if you're going to be a
00:02:39.760 member nation and participant you need to do your part um some have a greater sense of urgency about
00:02:45.200 that clearly and the full force of the united states gerontocracy seems to be out for justin trudeau
00:02:51.760 as well take a listen to the extremely old mitch mcconnell of all people once again calling out canada
00:02:59.120 for not doing our part majority leader and i and some others met with the canadian prime minister with
00:03:05.280 all due respect to our canadian friends they're a long way from hitting the two percent mark
00:03:12.080 but a whole lot of the rest of the nato members have and in may before the conference justin trudeau
00:03:17.200 received a letter from u.s senators like mitt romney and canadian ted cruz calling on the government
00:03:23.600 to increase our defense spending to two percent of gdp this is what they wrote to the prime minister back
00:03:29.680 in may as we approach the 2024 nato summit in washington dc we are concerned and profoundly
00:03:35.920 disappointed that canada's most recent projection indicated that it will not reach its two percent
00:03:41.520 commitment this decade in 2029 canada's defense spending is estimated to rise to just 1.7 percent
00:03:49.600 five years after the agreed-upon deadline of 2024 and still below the spending baseline and a report from
00:03:55.920 the parliamentary budget officer just three days ago makes it clear that canada just simply won't
00:04:02.320 reach that target by 2030. now this graph shows what the department of national defense is projecting to
00:04:09.280 spend and what the parliamentary budget officer believes will actually be spent and the gap just
00:04:15.520 gets wider and wider and before the conference actually kicked off bill blair found himself at a
00:04:21.280 foreign policy discussion where he was asked this question directly why canada hasn't reached its
00:04:28.880 defense spending targets a lot of nato leaders are in town and one of the big themes is two percent of
00:04:37.840 gdp for every single country being the floor not the ceiling for defense spending and canada's is i think
00:04:44.480 at about 1.3 percent and change it is at the moment um i introduced a new defense policy update for my
00:04:52.480 government and with it with a budget that will see my defense budget rise by 27 next year over this
00:04:59.040 my quick math tells me that still takes you to 1.7 and that's exactly where it takes me but let me
00:05:06.160 acknowledge to you nato's right every country member of nato has to do more and we're committed to doing
00:05:12.320 more we are also committed to the two percent expenditure at gdp one of the challenges i think
00:05:18.960 every defense minister and i get to meet with them all on a regular basis it's not just a matter of how
00:05:23.520 much you spend but it's a matter of spending it well and making sure that you can produce real real
00:05:29.680 value for our armed forces they understand their commitments they know what needs to be done they
00:05:34.960 know what they're being asked but they just won't do it they just won't spend the money that is required
00:05:40.400 now justin trudeau he knows what he's being asked to do he knows what needs to be done he won't do it
00:05:46.000 of course but he will get on the podium and talk about how important nato is to canada he will talk
00:05:52.160 about how much more canada is doing for defense for the nato alliance just not of course what is
00:05:59.520 actually required we're investing more in our troops in our capacity and in our capabilities all while
00:06:06.160 continuing to provide assistance to our allies resisting russian aggression nato is the strongest
00:06:13.920 military alliance in the world to keep it that way we must continue to step up individually and
00:06:20.800 collectively to strengthen both our alliance and the collective peace it represents and protects
00:06:29.600 canada stands with our nato allies but what is canada actually spending right now on defense
00:06:35.840 as a proportion of our gdp and the actual number and what would that number need to be to reach two
00:06:40.720 percent it's all well and good to talk about it but if we don't know the actual numbers then what's
00:06:45.360 the point the department of national defense's main estimate on 2023 2024 is 26 and a half billion
00:06:53.680 that is 1.33 of canada's gdp placing us as the seventh largest spender on defense in nato
00:07:01.840 and the 14th largest in the world canada however stands alone as the only country in nato without
00:07:07.360 a plan to reach two percent of our gdp on national defense by 2030. now in order for canada to reach our
00:07:14.240 nato commitment by the next year we would need to spend 57 billion dollars on defense our country would
00:07:22.480 need to double our defense spending which obviously won't be happening anytime soon but take a look at
00:07:29.680 this graph which details how each nato member country is spending on defense as not just a
00:07:36.320 proportion of their gdp but also on the targets regarding equipment canada finds itself second
00:07:44.640 lowest on equipment expenditure only in front of denmark and when it comes to canada's defense
00:07:50.560 spending as a proportion of our gdp you can find us right near the back of the line but believe it or
00:07:56.560 not before justin trudeau came to office canada actually was spending less than one percent of
00:08:03.760 our gdp on national defense justin trudeau has actually increased defense spending from the years
00:08:09.360 of stephen harper in 2015 stephen harper actually cut five billion dollars of defense spending in order
00:08:15.520 to achieve a budget surplus but you see justin trudeau he sees himself more as a climate prime minister
00:08:22.800 than as say maybe a real prime minister with a serious military because you see in justin trudeau's
00:08:30.640 eyes climate change is actually one of the largest national security threats and that's where he likes
00:08:37.920 to spend our money the most canada and nato have long recognized an indisputable fact climate change is
00:08:45.520 not only an existential environmental threat but one of the defining security issues of our time
00:08:53.200 remember the number that canada needs to reach in order to hit that two percent of gdp target
00:08:57.920 is 57 billion dollars but under justin trudeau it's important to remember that since 2015 the federal
00:09:05.360 government has spent over 100 billion dollars to fight climate change 60 billion from 2015 to 2019
00:09:16.080 and since 2020 a further 50 billion dollars on canada's green recovery we know that one of the
00:09:24.240 other targets canada is not reaching is the target imposed on us to lower our carbon emissions which we're
00:09:32.400 not at all close to doing in fact our carbon emissions just keep rising despite the fact that
00:09:37.120 the federal government has spent over 100 billion dollars to fight climate change now maybe defense
00:09:43.040 spending is not a priority for you and i understand that it's not something that canadians should even
00:09:48.160 be talking about it should just be taken care of it shouldn't be even in the news but it is that's the
00:09:53.440 situation that we're in right now but on a scale of what's more important is fighting climate change
00:09:58.960 more important or is having a strong military more important is having a military that can defend the
00:10:04.960 country without relying on anyone else more important than climate change i think the majority
00:10:11.040 of canadians would likely say probably having a strong military is more important but clearly
00:10:16.640 that's not the case with this federal government now is there a nuanced conversation to be had about
00:10:22.080 how climate change is impacting the arctic and what that means for national security of course there is
00:10:28.320 of course there's a conversation to be had about how to tackle a changing climate in the arctic
00:10:33.760 because that obviously is a national security threat but how do you address that do you address
00:10:39.280 that by forcing a carbon tax on canadians by shutting down our natural resources industry by having us rely
00:10:46.800 on unproven energy sources forcing us all to drive electric cars or do you tackle that problem by investing in the
00:10:56.800 naval equipment that is required to patrol the arctic do you solve that problem by investing in the manpower
00:11:03.600 and resources that we need in order to staff our own ships and to staff our military bases canada's
00:11:10.240 situation with national defense is not just a matter of money we have a crisis of morale we have a crisis
00:11:16.400 of leadership no one is signing up to join the forces we have a nutrition crisis there simply aren't even
00:11:23.440 enough sailors in the navy to operate all of our ships canadian soldiers in europe training troops
00:11:32.000 who will then go into battle with russia are having to buy their own helmets and buy their own equipment
00:11:38.480 the military is now so desperate for troops that we're not even requiring new recruits to be citizens
00:11:44.560 we're allowing permanent residents to try to apply and join the military and it was only last year
00:11:50.880 through discord leaks of united states military intelligence that's right leaks on discord that
00:11:58.960 we've found out trudeau had personally told nato officials that canada will never reach the nato
00:12:08.400 defense spending target not just that we will get to it not that we care about it or whatever that
00:12:13.600 canada will never reach the target and this report is insane the intelligence reports author
00:12:20.880 stated that canada's widespread military deficiencies are harming ties with security partners and allies
00:12:27.760 and that enduring defense shortfalls led the canadian armed forces to assess in february of 2023 that it
00:12:35.280 could not conduct a major operation while simultaneously maintaining its nato battle group leadership in
00:12:41.600 latvia and aid to ukraine and that without a significant shift in public opinion this situation wouldn't change
00:12:50.160 when asked last year about whether or not a pierre poly of government would reach the two percent of
00:12:55.840 gdp spending required by nato pierre poly has said that he would work toward it but remember this is not
00:13:03.520 just justin trudeau this is the same situation under stephen harper and it has been the same situation
00:13:09.280 under previous canadian governments our country has a very rich military history and a proud military history
00:13:16.560 now i don't like to agree with politicians like mike johnson in the united states but in this situation
00:13:21.920 i do have to agree with him i find this to be shameful not only should canada have a functioning
00:13:28.000 military which it appears we do not have right now not only should we have a military that is respected
00:13:34.640 by our allies but every canadian should want our military to once again be feared by the enemy not
00:13:41.680 to be laughed at not to be looked at as some sort of joke this is serious business war is anything but
00:13:50.560 a joke and that's what the military is supposed to do its job is to be able to win wars to kill the enemy
00:13:58.880 and to protect the country it's really that simple when you break it down but of course it's anything
00:14:04.400 but when you get into the details this is shameful but hardly surprising all right that's going to do
00:14:10.880 it for us today on the show thank you so much for tuning in my name is harrison faulkner and this is