Carney pledges to increase Canada's defence spending to more than 2% of GDP
'We will protect our sovereignty in an increasingly dangerous and divided world by rebuilding, reinvesting and rearming our military'
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The Liberal party will increase spending on the Canadian military to more than two per cent of its gross domestic product within a few years if elected, leader Mark Carney announced at a campaign stop at the Bombardier aeronautics plant in Montreal on Monday.
“It’s clear, military expenditures will be higher, higher than two per cent of our GDP in a few years. Because it’s necessary, it’s necessary for our safety. But it can be done in a way that elevates our own industries and creates good jobs here in Montreal and across the country.”
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The two-per-cent marker is a key demand of NATO as a measure of support of allied countries. It has also been a main sticking point with the United States, which accuses Canada of shirking its responsibilities on defence spending. Canada currently spends 1.3 per cent of its GDP on defence.
“We will protect our sovereignty in an increasingly dangerous and divided world by rebuilding, reinvesting and rearming our military,” Carney said, pledging to invest in Canadian industries and materials needed for defence management.
At the same time, Carney criticized Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s pledge, also made in Montreal on Monday, to use the notwithstanding clause to allow longer sentences for mass murderers.
“I think this is very dangerous,” Carney said, flanked by hundreds of workers from the plant and a huge Canadian flag. “We have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it’s the responsibility of the government of Canada to defend that charter, those fundamental rights.
Politicizing certain issues with respect to fundamental rights “is a slippery slope,” he said.
Carney said his government would instead crack down on guns and gun violence.
“Mr. Poilievre has voted against every single gun-control measure during his very long career as a politician in the House of Commons,” he said. “I think it’s over 200 times.”
Carney also addressed a comment he made on the popular Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle Sunday night that the economy hadn’t been a top priority for former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“For the last 10 years, the pace of government spending, particularly in operational expenditures, rose by an average of nine per cent a year, year after year after year. That’s about twice the rate of the growth of the economy,” he said.
The level of government spending for industry and business investments will be “reconsidered,” he said, and details of the plan will be released during the campaign.
“We are focused on a government that spends less so that Canada can invest more in defence, in trade corridors, in clean energy and building new houses.”
Under his armed forces plan, Carney said the government would invest in the military industry in Canada by establishing a new defence procurement agency that would oversee military purchases, buying Canadian whenever possible, and prioritizing raw materials like steel, aluminum and critical minerals.
This report will be updated.
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