Canada’s ambitious strategy to turn to the European Union to wean itself off American dependency for military equipment could be difficult to deliver and result in political fallout, warns former defence and security officials in a new report.
After assessing the political and fiscal risks of the Canada-EU Security and Defence Partnership, signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Brussels in June, the authors found that “achieving the partnership’s full potential is highly uncertain” because of obstacles on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Those obstacles include trade tensions with the United States, division among the European nations and weak links between the federal and provincial governments.
Trump may not care at all seeing it as one more stumble in Canada’s Elbows Up death march.
But if it means participation in un-scrutinized hastily thrown together “deals” that line the pockets of third parties named Brookfield then it’s all good!
