Posted in

John Robson: NATO Pressure Won’t Stop Canada’s Free-Riding on US Defence Spending

According to a newspaper, not this one, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week “pressure will be on” to make a meaningful contribution to the alliance. Pressure being a colourless, odourless gas whose only known effect is to cause journalists to write headlines.

We’ve been free-riding on American defence spending since Trudeau Sr. scorned “pressure” to be less of a frivolous peacenik. No matter who’s in power, usually the Liberals, we never reached our oft-promised 2 percent of GDP on defence, mostly because we never tried. Nor will we.

Share