OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday that he would massively cut foreign aid to pay for a new military base in the Arctic, two new heavy icebreakers and double the number of Canadian Rangers who patrol the north where China and Russia are seen as a growing strategic threat.
The promises were part of a new plan to bolster Canada’s military presence in the Arctic, which Poilievre pledged to pay for through deep — but unspecified — cuts to the current Liberal government’s foreign assistance budget.
“We’ve got enough problems at home. We’ve got our own backyard to protect. We can’t be sending billions of dollars to other places, often … much of it is wasted, and stolen and swallowed up by bureaucracies that act against our interests,” Poilievre told reporters in Iqaluit.
