Statement from Dominic Cardy on Defence Spending

Statement from Dominic Cardy, leader of the Canadian Futures Party (CFP) on defence spending to 5% GDP

‍Dominic Cardy responded today to Marco Rubio’s request for Canada to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP.

“Canada needs to act independently of American influence and chart our own path as a nation within a global alliance of democracies. The first step in this process is to immediately increase our defence spending to 2.25% of our GDP. These funds will improve pay and living conditions for our troops, refill our depleted stockpiles of ammunition and equipment, and begin a sweeping change of the Canadian Armed Forces that will see us move, in partnership with our allies, towards that five percent target now being set by allies in Poland, the Baltics, and elsewhere. We need to move towards 5% of GDP on defence not because the United States has told us, but because of the threat from the United States. The only way to guarantee our independence is if we build Canada into the world’s northern democratic superpower. That’s a plan for Canadians to develop and embrace.Achieving this goal requires public support and increased military capacity. With threats from Russia, China and the U.S., preparing for future conflicts is crucial: the best guarantee of peace in the future is deterrence today. We must emphasize Canada's strategic position, proactively organize our response during peacetime, and make it clear to potential aggressors that the cost of aggression against Canada is not worth it.

We must immediately reorganize our country by building factories and updating procurement methods, like we did during WWII when two great Canadians, C.D. Howe and Lord Beaverbrook, led the efforts to make sure our country and the UK had the economy they needed to see off the Nazis. We should take advantage of this peaceful time to prepare and hopefully prevent potential conflicts.

While other parties offer distant promises to meet long-ago targets, distract attention with niche tax credits and unrealistic promises to limit deficits, and generally refuse to confront the reality of a world sliding towards war, the CFP is here to tell the truth.

The Canadian Future Party is here to prepare Canadians to face our greatest challenges. We offer fresh, no-nonsense, and evidence-based solutions developed by and for Canadians, to defend our country’s independence, to make democracy deliver by making life better and more affordable, and to build our country into the world’s northern democratic superpower.”