Diane Francis: Time to pay the piper on defence
Joe Biden has had a profound effect on the U.S.-Canada relationship in his term as president
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The midterm elections in the United States were good news for the Democrats and for moderates in both parties, because there was no violence and the results signal the end of the calamitous Donald Trump era. No matter how appealing some of his policies were, he was corrosive, combative, erratic and flirted with dangerous elements within American society.
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While he cannot be counted out, the fact is that Trump’s slate of election-deniers were soundly rejected and his arch-rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, scored a momentous victory that makes him a potential presidential candidate in 2024. Even so, Trump is expected to announce his candidacy soon. Whatever happens, his ongoing ambitions will benefit Democrats in the future, because it will launch a distracting civil war within the Grand Old Party.
It’s also important to point out that exit polling found that most Americans don’t want Trump or U.S. President Joe Biden to run in 2024. To date, Trump has signalled that he will run, but Biden said he won’t decide until early next year.
For Canadians, a stable America with a less-populist leader like Biden is a good thing. But make no mistake: Biden’s no pushover. In his term, he has had a profound effect on the U.S.-Canada relationship.
Two recent examples demonstrate this shift. In September 2021, the U.S. struck a deal with China that resulted in the release of “the two Michaels” and allowed Huawei’s chief financial officer to leave Canada and avoid being extradited to the U.S. to face serious criminal charges.
Then, in December 2021, the Biden administration quietly renegotiated its defence arrangement with Ottawa, which was billed as a “modernization” of NORAD. Last June, Ottawa admitted publicly that its share of the cost of modernizing NORAD — deploying new radars and sensor systems to avert missile attacks — would total a staggering $40 billion over two decades. But it will likely be much more than that.
“Considering delays and cost overruns that can regularly plague Canadian military equipment purchases, some defence insiders say there should be real concerns about the final tally,” wrote David Pugliese in the Ottawa Citizen.
Ottawa’s procurement system is already broken, he added. “The delivery of the Arctic patrol ships was seven years behind schedule, with the original cost going from $2.6 billion to $4.3 billion.
“In 2015, Justin Trudeau promised his government would never purchase the F-35 because the jet didn’t work. Now, Trudeau’s government is spending up to $19 billion on the stealth fighters but they won’t all arrive until 2031.”
The Canadian government also realizes that it must work with resource companies to develop projects that qualify for U.S. grants and contracts aimed at lessening America’s reliance on China for critical minerals that are needed for technology, manufacturing and the energy transition in both countries.
Matthew Zolnowski, who’s involved with procurement under the U.S. Defense Production Act, told a Canada-United States Law Institute conference in Washington, D.C., that Canadian companies and developments qualify for U.S. government assistance under the act. “An investment in Alberta or Quebec or Nova Scotia would be no different than if it was in Nebraska or anywhere else in the United States, as a matter of law,” he said.
It’s unfortunate that these and other critically important national security issues related to resources have been ignored for years in Ottawa. In an increasingly dangerous world, national security is the most important issue, as it underpins our economies and our standards of living. And yet, many Canadians seem happy to delegate military responsibility to our big brother to the south.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that important Americans are upset that Canada hasn’t been pulling its weight. And in June, we finally got the $40-billion bill.
Financial Post
