Poilievre won't commit to NATO 2% target, says he's 'inheriting a dumpster fire' budget balance

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he won't commit to meeting the two per cent NATO defence spending target if he becomes prime minister.

"I make promises that I can keep and right now we are, our country, is broke," Poilievre said. "I'm inheriting a dumpster fire when it comes to the budget.

"Every time I make a financial commitment, I'm going to make sure I've pulled out my calculator and done all the math. People are sick and tired of politicians just announcing that they're going to spend money without figuring out how they're going to pay for it."

Poilievre made the remarks in Montréal after being asked why he hasn't yet committed to the NATO benchmark of spending two per cent of annual GDP on the military.

Watch l Poilievre says he cannot commit to NATO benchmark due to 'dumpster fire' budget situation l 

Poilievre says he cannot commit to NATO benchmark due to ‘dumpster fire’ budget situation

5 months ago

Duration 2:01

Asked about meeting the NATO target of spending two per cent of Canada’s GDP on defence, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the Trudeau government has left Canada broke and people are "sick and tired of politicians just announcing they’re going to spend money without figuring out how they’re going to pay for it.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government plans to meet the spending target by 2032.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to reach the target by 2032 at the NATO summit in Washington D.C. on Thursday after facing criticism for lagging behind alliance partners.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with Trudeau in Washington on Tuesday. After the meeting, McConnell published a post on X: "It's time for our northern ally to invest seriously in the hard power required to help preserve prosperity and security across NATO."

In May, a group of U.S. senators from both major parties sent a letter to Trudeau urging the Liberal government to boost defence spending to the NATO target.

"It's clear now Justin Trudeau is seen as an absolute joke on the world stage," Poilievre said in reaction to allies' criticism of Canada's defence spending.

Poilievre said Thursday his plan to boost defence spending hinges on cutting funding to "dictators, terrorists and multinational bureaucracies."

"I will crack down on corruption, back office bureaucracy and procurement bungles, and I will use the savings from that to reinforce our military," he said.

Poilievre said that a future Conservative government would "buy equipment based on best value, to make our money go further" and would replace the military's "woke culture with a warrior culture" to boost recruitment. 

"When the previous Conservative government was in office, we weren't hearing these criticisms. Why? Because we were delivering. It wasn't because we were spending more, it's because we were delivering more," he said. 

In fact, between 2012 and 2015 the Conservatives faced substantial criticism for cutting the Department of National Defence budget by $2.7 billion annually in order to reach a balanced budget.

And after the Afghan war, the government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper cancelled or delayed decisions on several high-profile defence programs.

For budgetary reasons, it shelved a decision to buy modern close-combat vehicles for the army and delayed a program to buy replacement anti-aircraft systems for the army. It also put off buying the F-35 stealth fighter after the auditor general and the Parliamentary Budget Office accused the government of not doing enough homework on the purchase.

Canada spends about 1.37 per cent of its GDP on the military and the federal government says it plans to reach 1.76 per cent by the end of the decade.

Since coming to power in 2015, the Trudeau government's military spending as a percentage of GDP has ranged from a low of 1.16 per cent in 2016 to a high of 1.44 in 2017, according to NATO figures.

NATO says that under the last Conservative government, military spending in Canada from 2008 to 2014 ranged from 0.99 per cent of GDP in 2013 to 1.39 per cent in 2009.

The alliance began tracking member nations' defence spending as a percentage of GDP in 1974.

In 1974, Canada spent an estimated 2.4 per cent of its GDP on the military. That placed it second from the bottom among 14 NATO members, ahead of Luxembourg and just behind the Netherlands.

The 1990s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union saw those numbers fall off a cliff. Defence budgets were gutted and Canada was spending about 1.2 per cent of GDP on defence — which is roughly where the defence budget stands today.