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


Transcript

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