A former U.S. envoy to Ottawa says he’s concerned about what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly said about Canadian defence spending.
David Jacobson, who served as Barack Obama’s ambassador from 2009 to 2013, says a recent Washington Post report could prove to be a setback for future U.S.-Canada relations.
The Post says Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada would never meet the military alliance’s spending target of two per cent of GDP.
Jacobson says the comments, if true, risk making it harder for the two countries to resolve future bilateral irritants.
And they could also undermine the faith of the American public in NATO by fuelling the perception that the U.S. shoulders the bulk of the military burden around the world.
Jacobson, who says he doesn’t know if the story is accurate, was speaking at the annual conference of the Canada-U. S. Law Institute.
“It’s one of those things that causes governments to lose confidence,” Jacobson told an audience of lawyers, trade experts and former diplomats at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“It’s a perfect example of what not to do in order to help solve some of the bilateral issues in both directions that are … legitimately very important to segments of the Canadian public and the American public.”
The report, published online Wednesday and then Thursday on the newspaper’s front page, was based on a document from a trove of Pentagon secrets leaked in recent weeks in an online chat forum for gamers.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old IT specialist and member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested last week and faces charges of violating the U.S. Espionage Act.
The Post said the unsigned, undated document, which The Canadian Press has not seen, mentions “widespread” military deficiencies in Canada that are causing friction with security partners and allies.
Jacobson acknowledged a long-standing truth in the politically polarized U.S.: that public support for military missions abroad is fragile, especially when American taxpayers are footing the bulk of the bill.
While NATO has long struggled to get many of its members to meet its two per cent spending target, military spending in the U.S. is about 3.3 per cent of a GDP 13 times that of Canada’s.
By comparison, the federal government in Ottawa currently spends about 1.4 per cent of GDP on defence.
“What will happen is that the American public is going to decide, ‘Why should we do this? Why should we defend the world?”’ Jacobson said. It’s in the best interests of the U.S. to do it, he added.
“But at some point, people are going to say, ‘Well, we’ve got all these freeloaders’ _ I hate to use that term _ ‘we’ve got all these freeloaders and we’re not going to do it anymore.”’
It’s a turn of phrase that brings to mind former president Donald Trump, who frequently berated NATO allies for shortchanging the alliance _ and who is running for president again next year.
The Post story did not elaborate nor detail Trudeau’s comments. But it does describe complaints from a number of allies about perceived shortfalls within the Canadian military.
NATO, for instance, is “concerned” that Canada hasn’t added to the ranks of its battle group in Latvia, part of a multinational deterrence mission in eastern Europe known as Operation Reassurance.
Turkey was “disappointed” by Canada’s apparent “refusal” to help transport aid after an earthquake earlier this year, while Haiti is “frustrated” by Canada’s reluctance to mount a security mission there, the Post reported.
“Widespread defence shortfalls hinder Canadian capabilities,” the Post quoted the document as saying, “while straining partner relationships and alliance contributions.”
Defence Minister Anita Anand rejected the premise of the Post story outright in an interview Wednesday, after a meeting with current U.S. ambassador David Cohen.
“We … discussed the upward trajectory of our defence spending,” Anand said, “and in fact how Canada continues to make foundational investments for the Canadian Armed Forces.”
The Liberal government has committed to nearly $40 billion on Norad modernization and North American defence, along with $8 billion in military spending announced in the 2022 budget, she added.
As for Latvia, Canada has launched an urgent, competitive procurement process to equip troops there with anti-tank, anti-drone and anti-air defence systems, Anand said.
The Post said the Forces warned in February that a major military operation was currently impossible, given the Latvia deployment and Canada’s ongoing military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The U.S. has also been anxious to find someone to lead a multinational support mission in gang-ravaged Haiti, and officials have even name-checked Canada as a worthy option.
But Jacobson said his sense is that the question of Canada’s role in Haiti is less a bilateral disagreement than a serious question about capacity.
“One of the things I learned about military engagement is you can’t do everything. You never have enough bullets, you never have enough tanks, you never have enough soldiers to do all the things you want to do,” he said.
“You have even fewer tanks and soldiers and bullets if you’re spending 1.4 per cent of your GDP.”