In this brave new world, Canada urgently needs a foreign human intelligence service |
The Canadian flag files on the Parliament Hill Peace Tower. The federal budget promises to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence in 2025-26.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Jody Thomas retired in 2024 as national security and intelligence adviser to the Prime Minister. She is now a senior adviser with Counsel Public Affairs.
Patrick Lennox is an associate fellow of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, and a former national security practitioner.
The 2025 federal budget seeks to prepare us for a more Machiavellian world. That’s evident in its historic investments in national defence and security – an additional $81.8-billion over the next five years – and its pledges to push us to the NATO target of devoting 2 per cent of GDP to defence spending in 2025-26.
But spending big is one thing. Spending wisely and with a clear purpose beyond reaching an arbitrary benchmark is another.
The stewards of this investment must ensure that it makes Canada significantly more self-reliant and resilient in the face of a deeply destabilized world. There are many elements to this, but an essential one appears missing from the government’s plans: the establishment of a foreign human intelligence service for Canada.