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Leaders and candidates of the Federal Party in the upcoming elections Say that they are dedicated to putting Canada on a meeting NATO current Defense cost The goal, but resist the call of Trump’s administration to allies to more than double double the obligation.
US President Donald Trump said he wanted NATO members to spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated on Friday at a NATO Foreign Minister meeting in Brussels.
“I’m not saying overnight,” he told reporters, but “we think this is what NATO allies need to spend on NATO to face the threats he identified in itself and articulated.”
“Today we are involved in NATO as we have ever been and we intend to continue to be. But it must be a real covenant. And that means that our partners of the Alliance must increase our own abilities,” he said.
Asked if he would also reconcile with five percent now, Rubio said, “Of course. We’re going there now.”
According to NATO to the numbers, It was predicted that the US had spent 3.38 percent of GDP on their army last year, the only ally whose consumption has fallen in the last decade.
Trump calls increased the pressure on Canada, which is among the eight of the 32 NATO members, which are currently missing from a goal of two percent. She spent 1.37 percent last year.
Canadian consumption for defense is one of several complaints that Trump cited in his calls to become the country of the US-Idee, which he was floating even in front of NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at a meeting of an oval office last month.
The White House has invited all NATO allies to hit two percent by June, When the NATO leaders must gather at their annual meeting, along with the obligations to increase afterwards.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who runs for a re-election as a liberal candidate in Ahuntsic-Cartierville riding in Montreal, told reporters in Brussels that Canada has been dedicated to increasing the cost of defense.
However, she added that NATO has to align in dealing with Russia – an apparent reference to Trump’s willingness to hit closer relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the midst of the constant support of NATO Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
“It is important that we all agree that Russia is a threat. If not, I do not know why we should always increase more and more expenses to defend,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters at NATO Brussels headquarters.
“We all know that we live a lot more in the dangerous world and in that sense we have to do more. Canada is ready to do more and we have to do faster.”
Here’s what the leaders of the Federal Party have said about increasing the Canadian defense costs and the fulfillment of his NATO obligations because Trump’s threats dominate the campaign.
Liberal leader Mark Carney said shortly after he called the election that the liberal government would fill the target two percent before 2030.
Carney promised to modernize the employment process for Canadian armed forces and resolve a shortage of over 14,000 CAF members. He said he would do this by increasing the salaries of an unspecified amount, building multiple housing and improving health and child care services.
He also vowed to modernize and accelerate military procurement and give priority to Canadian equipment production.
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These investments will be a priority for Arctic security and modernization of NORAD.
“We will provide an unprecedented acceleration of investment in our armed forces so we can defend every inch of our sovereign territory, helping to support and defend our allies abroad,” he said at the announcement of the defense platform in Halifax on March 25.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the government leading to him would ensure that Canada fills the target two percent, but has not set a time tape when it will happen.
He says that conservatives will take advantage of additional revenues earned by an extended trade agreement with the US, negotiating in response to Trump’s Tariffs in Canada, for investing in the CAF. Reducing foreign help and the public service “bureaucracy” will further release the financing of defense, he said.
“We will hit our two percent, we will return control of our Arctic waters from Chinese and Russians, we will renew our army and become a truly sovereign nation with strong armed forces that can protect us,” Poilievre said at the Toronto 2 event.
“We will not do this to satisfy President Trump. We will do it because it is right for Canada, especially in the light of American growing ambivalence towards NATO … Canada will have its weight.”
Asked on Friday about the call of Trump’s administration by five percent of consumption, Poilievre told reporters to Trois-Riviere, Que, that “we will make our own decisions about how much we spend.”
Before the elections were invited, the leader of the NDP Jagmeet Singh said his government would commit to fulfilling a goal of two percent by 2032.
Singh said at an event in Iqaluit on March 16th. NDP would do it by building 5,000 new affordable homes to end the lack of military living space, collected military salaries and a priority to buying military equipment built in Canada.
He added that investments in the Arctic defense must be related to investments in the northern communities, including infrastructure.
“We can’t separate them,” he told reporters. “So we have to find investments to build north so that we can defend it, but also for supporting communities. We believe that the two are deeply connected, and we will find ways to bring these investments.
Singh has not addressed the NDP defense platform so far in the mark of the campaign.
The NDP campaign clerk that talks about the background said Global News “Canada” will not do something just because Donald Trump tells us, “when asked about further increasing the cost of defense to five percent.
The NDP would look at how to increase this consumption in a way that is best for Canadians and is economically feasible, the clerk said.
Bloc Quebecois platform The call for Canada to have a goal of spending by the end of this decade, primarily by increasing investment in defense in Quebec.
Green fun “Protection of Canada” section Their platforms one mentions NATO. He says the party wants to “create a common diplomatic and economic front-economic NATO species-s other democracy of like-minded people.”
The goal is to “establish red lines and put an American administration and key American economic actors on a notification of joint retribution of economic measures against the US to further engage in the sovereignty of any Economic Block member.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in February that his government would increase defense costs from 2.33 percent of GDP last year to 2.5 percent by 2027.
France has set a “goal” between three percent and 3.5 percent, “which is the level of US consumption for defense,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in Brussels said on Friday. France is estimated to spend just over two percent last year.
The best cost of defense in the NATO Federation last year, Poland, awarded 4.12 percent of his GDP for military spending 2024.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that NATO members work to set up a new consumption goal, which will be published on the next Summit in June.
“As it is important to spend more, it is important to consume smarter,” he said, calling Trump’s call for five percent of the goal “with a very high ambition.”
– with files from Associated Press
