Defence Minister Bill Blair arrives to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Nov. 5.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Defence Minister Bill Blair stood by his government’s plan to only hit NATO’s spending target in the next decade despite warnings from a key ally of presidential hopeful Donald Trump that such a timeline won’t be acceptable should he win the White House.
In July, Canada announced it would hit NATO’s goal of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2032 – years behind most other allies in the alliance.
Such a timeline will be unacceptable to Mr. Trump, the former president’s ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft said in interviews this week.
Polls close across the United States on Tuesday evening but depending on how close the race is between Mr. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, it could take days before there is a final result.
Asked whether Canada will have to speed up its defence spending should Mr. Trump win the U.S. election, Mr. Blair said the current plans are sufficient.
“I’ve already shared with NATO, I think, a strong plan to get where we need to be by 2032 and we’re going to do it,” Mr. Blair said on his way into cabinet on Tuesday.
Ottawa would have to double military spending to meet NATO target, budget watchdog says
He said he is going as fast as possible to expand Canada’s defence budget and capabilities but noted that the required infrastructure projects take time to execute.
“It takes time to build new battleships, it’s going to take time to build the new submarines we’re going to require, it’s going to take time to deliver the airplanes we need,” he said.
But Canada should not expect patience from Mr. Trump, according to his former ambassador in Ottawa. Ms. Craft told CTV’s Question Period with Vassy Kapelos on Sunday that “2032 is not good enough.”
“Canada, you can do better,” she said. “Canada needs to wake up and understand that once you work from within and you strengthen you will have no better friend than the United States under a Trump presidency.”
In April, the government estimated that Canada would spend about 1.33 per cent of GDP on defence this year, and that it would hit 1.76 per cent by 2029-30.
Three months later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that would climb to the 2 per cent target by 2032 but the announcement was made with no detailed plan for how Canada would get there or projections for how much spending would be required.
Already 23 of NATO’s 32 members have achieved the target that Canada plans to hit in eight years.
