Alas, the Conservative leader won’t commit to spending two per cent of Canada's GDP on defence

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) set a target in 2014 for member states to earmark two per cent of their national GDP for defence spending, noting that allies below this level would “aim to move towards” reaching the guideline “within a decade.”

Of the 31 NATO member states, only one still hasn’t met this reasonable target. Take a wild guess as to which country it is.

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Oh, Canada.

That’s right. Canada, one of NATO’s founding members in 1949, hasn’t met the two per cent target or submitted a plan to detail how it’ll ultimately reach it. A leading voice in establishing this collective military alliance that’s helped protect against outside threats like the old Soviet Union and the spread of communism, and more recently in political and military efforts involving Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, has become voiceless.

Hang on. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last Thursday during a three-day NATO meeting in Washington, D.C. that his Liberal government will finally meet the defence spending target. Not in 2024, mind you — but in (ahem) 2032. He did not explain how Canada would achieve this.

Does the hapless Trudeau have a plan, or was he speaking out of thin air? The devil is often in the details, and there currently aren’t any.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said NATO allies treated Trudeau like a “human piñata” in Washington. He also suggested the prime minister only said something to save face, and Canada has “lost its place” on the international stage since he took power.

Indeed, Trudeau is a lost cause when it comes to prioritizing our nation’s safety and security. Canada has been sitting at the foreign policy kiddie table for most of his time in office. The country has largely lost the respect of the international community, too. Repairing this damage won’t happen overnight.

Alas, Poilievre won’t commit to the two per cent NATO target, either. In February, he said his government would “work towards” this pledge, but no timeframe has been established.

“I make promises that I can keep and right now we are, our country, is broke after nine years of Trudeau,” Poilievre said at a........

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