Editorial: Time for urgency on armed forces

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Canada’s new national defence policy document strikes a better, more serious tone about Ottawa’s responsibility for the armed forces. But tone alone will do little to fix our neglected military and defence gaps.

“Our North, Strong and Free” is the feds’ latest effort, released this month ahead of the federal budget. It replaces 2017’s “Strong, Secure, Engaged.”

“Engaged” fit the Trudeau vibe in 2017. “Canada is back,” the prime minister liked to say. Once again, our country was a world leader, a voice of progressive ideals, ready to mingle after the dour Harper years, so the story went.

But most of that cool-socks vibe went nowhere. Our military spending continually missed NATO targets. Our procurement efforts continued to be riddled by delays and cost overruns. Our capability seemed to dwindle.

The rest of the world noticed – and ceased to care what Ottawa thinks or says, given what they’ve seen us fail to do. The United States, United Kingdom and Australia forged the AUKUS partnership without Canada. Our bid for a UN security council seat failed. Our allies are openly questioning our commitment to defence and global security.

A new tone, while welcome, can’t conjure up a highly capable military. And unfortunately, the new federal defence policy still smells more like aspiration than cold, hard intention. The scale of the required investment outstrips the budgetary commitments, which are set to fall short of NATO targets indefinitely.

Of course, we need long-term spending commitments, but given the global situation, we also need urgency.

Our Arctic waters are ice-free more and more, and Russian and Chinese vessels and planes will test our capacity to defend those waters in years, not decades.

For now, our North is free, but we cannot take that freedom for granted.