The part of the budget that suggests to me that this isn’t the full budget
From the Globe:
Despite calls from the United States for Canada to increase its contributions to international military efforts, there is no increase in defence spending in the 2017 budget. In fact, the Department of National Defence is reallocating $8.48-billion that it expected to spend on capital projects, such as planes, ships, trucks and large infrastructure, before 2036 to future years when it will be used to purchase fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft and new light-armoured vehicles.
That’s quite a stark contrast from the military-industrial complex fiscal orgy that the Unpresident kicked off a few days ago with his “budget.” From the Times:
President Trump put both political parties on notice Monday that he intends to slash spending on many of the federal government’s most politically sensitive programs — relating to education, the environment, science and poverty — to protect the economic security of retirees and to shift billions more to the armed forces.
The proposal to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut nonmilitary programs by the same amount was unveiled by White House officials as they prepared the president’s plans for next year’s federal budget.
No increase in spending up here, $54 billion down there. Given that Agent Orange has threatened to kill NATO to save it – given that he has said (perhaps appropriately) that all NATO countries need to pull their weight – I don’t see how Canada’s 2017 budget can possibly be the last word on defence.
Unless we want to enrage the lunatic to the South, we will need to spend more. I think that today’s Parliament-hallway noises about some sort of a long-term defence spending plan mean that Messrs. Trudeau and Moreau plan to do just that: spend more on guns and tanks and fighter jets and whatnot. Why be Neville-Chamberlain-like with the Unpresident for two months, and then abruptly piss it all away in a single budget? Makes no sense.
Trump will eventually win what he wants from Canada, even if it didn’t seem that way today.
Oh, and Obama wanted it too, folks.