In terms of the words that Harper uses, I appreciate his forthright condemnation of Putin’s behaviour in Ukraine. The 20th century was an ugly one for Europe, and the world can’t afford leaders colouring outside the lines when it comes to annexing territory or messing with the internal affairs of its neighbours.
Historians J.L. Granatstein and William Kaplan have co-authored an article that applauded the Canadian prime minister for being ahead of the pack in identifying Putin’s nasty behaviour in Ukraine, outing Putin as “a Stalinist using Nazi big-lie techniques and Soviet-era disinformation tactics to camouflage his government’s actions and shift blame.”
They commended Harper’s exhortations to Canada’s allies to mobilize to counter Russian expansionism — to activate NATO and to impose economic sanctions to make Putin think twice about throwing his weight around. All good.
But these words are fluff, unless Canada is willing to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to standing up to the Putins of this world.
This government — which swaggers around in fatigues, pretending to be a friend of the Canadian Forces — has a lot to answer for when it comes to maintaining a military that can play its role in the world when these kinds of crises arise.
Canada’s defence budget as a percentage of GDP peaked at two per cent under the Trudeau government. It went into steady decline under the Chrétien Liberals, looked like it would expand long-term when the Harper government came to power, then plummeted.
According the World Bank, it dropped from 1.4 per cent in 2009 to one per cent in 2013. Based on indications that the government is going to continue to tighten military spending, that downward spiral is likely to continue.
Canadians don’t expect their governments to spend as much on their armed forces as countries such as Russia (4.2 per cent of GDP) or the U.S. (3.8 per cent). But when non-combative countries such as Norway (1.4 per cent), Denmark (1.4 per cent) and Sweden (1.2 per cent) are spending more, you know you have a government that’s putting the squeeze on our military.
The Department of National Defence is being hounded by the Treasury Board, which had designed a system that makes it impossible for DND to manage its budget. As a result, the military keeps falling behind in equipment purchases, and capacity keeps declining.
The government could put an end to this stalemate if it wished to, but instead seems delighted that it is pocketing the unspent money to meet and exceed its deficit-fighting targets.
Canadians already have a small military — and it just keeps shrinking. Not in numbers, because the government knows the optics of reducing personnel, juxtaposed with repeated failures to replace essential equipment, would confirm that the government isn’t much interested in the military at all.
But when you maintain personnel numbers while ordering cuts of 20 per cent in operations and maintenance expenditures, you’re creating a dysfunctional organization that can’t do what it is supposed to do.
Never has a government talked such big talk about investing in its military while allowing it to erode so dramatically.
Canada’s navy, for instance, is going to be without a lot of essential ships after this government has left the scene.
The same applies to key aircraft for the air force.
It’s nice to hear strong words condemning Putin’s perfidy in Ukraine. But they ring a bit hollow when they mask not-so-nice weakness in this country’s capacity to back them up.
Senator Colin Kenny is a former chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence.
