It's the same old song and dance. When our fearless leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, proudly proclaimed “Canada is back” he was
not by any means the first to coin the term, nor will he likely be the last to say it.
In 2012, the Harper Conservatives scaled back spending in the defence budget for the first time since assuming office in 2006. It seemed like a sign for dark days to come, but security-minded voters held out hope. But the budget that was just released last week by Trudeau's Liberals boasts further cuts to defence spending -- to the tune of almost $400 million.
As much as Canada is a proudly humanitarian nation, we should pause before throwing caution to the wind. The conflict plaguing the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe, may be an entire ocean away, but the world gets really small in a really big hurry when you start talking global conflict. Last week's horrific slaughter of 31 people in Brussels is further proof of that.
Canada shares the largest undefended border in the world with the United States, our closest partner in trade. We often shake our heads and smile rather smugly at our neighbours to the south and their seemingly endless fervor for increased military spending.
In 2015, the United States had a military spending budget of $495.6 billion, while the 2016 budget tabled by the Trudeau Liberals allocates a mere $19 billion. Even when the population differential is considered, the difference is simply staggering.
Following last November's attacks in Paris, Trudeau decided to follow through before the end of this March by pulling our CF-18s off of their mission to bomb ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
What was perplexing was his timing. If he intended to hold to his election promise to pull out the planes, why announce he's doing so almost immediately following an attack on one of our allies -- especially considering it was not going to be done until almost four months later? Was immediately following the Paris attacks really the best time? Could he not have waited until the dust had settled and the casualty count was in before jumping on the horn?
What could have been written off as a bit of bad timing for a brand new prime minister has happened again. In a CBC radio interview last week, Trudeau stated Canada is “not at war” with ISIS because the conflict does not meet the “true definition of war.” Again though, his timing seems strange.
Immediately following the Brussels attack, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls proclaimed Europe was at war with the Islamic State. For Trudeau to declare that Canada is not, shows not only bad timing, but being out of touch with our Allies in the collective fight to wipe out terrorism here and abroad.
Meanwhile, if we are going to scale back our defence spending on such a scale, perhaps our prime minister should consider his messaging, a much different song and dance where timing is simply a whole lot better.
