National Defence Minister Bill Blair speaks during the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence in Ottawa on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
As Bill Blair ramps up his warnings about the state of the military, Trudeau sticks to his script | CBC News LoadedIt would be a gross overstatement to say there's a wedge developing between Defence Minister Bill Blair and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on defence spending. But recent polls suggest there may be a wedge opening up between federal politicians and average Canadians alarmed at the state of this country's military.
Without naming the prime minister, the head of the CDAI, retired lieutenant-general Guy Thibault — himself a former vice-chief of the defence staff — insisted at the opening of the conference on Thursday that matters of national security and defence are not special interests. He acknowledged the military faces a "death spiral" on recruitment and said it's completely "unacceptable" that — as CBC News reported on Wednesday — almost half of the military's equipment is considered "unserviceable" and only 58 per cent of personnel could respond if NATO called in a crisis.
It would be a gross overstatement to say there's a wedge between Blair and Trudeau. But that moment at the CDAI conference was a subtle indication of the faultlines that are developing around collective security and defence in this country.Defence and foreign policy experts say the government appears increasingly out of step with emerging public concern about the wars raging outside the country's borders and the potential for worse things to come.
All three surveys point to growing support for higher defence spending and for meeting NATO's defence spending benchmark of two per cent of gross domestic product. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's party hasn't committed to meeting the NATO defence spending target either.
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