[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Might be due to the NATO Summit at the same time.

Maybe Trudeau should have come to Calgary for the party as he'd probably be having a lot more fun.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Canada’s failure to hit the NATO target came up in meetings Trudeau held Monday and Tuesday with American politicians, and that the government was aware that Canada is being “called out” for falling short as the alliance gathered in Washington to mark its 75th anniversary at a time of global tensions and war in Europe.

The discussions were taking place as the Canadian delegation fielded criticism over the lack of a clear plan to increase Ottawa’s military spending to at least two per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). With Russia’s war in Ukraine, American pressure and increasing competition between the West and China fuelling a drive across the alliance towards military expansion, a growing number of NATO’s 32 members are hitting that two-per-cent target — more than 20 by the end of this year, according to NATO’s most recent estimate. But Canada remains near the bottom of the list, with military spending equivalent to 1.37 per cent of its GDP, the NATO estimate says.

That fact has fuelled criticism for weeks, including from high-level American legislators heading into the summit that officially opened Tuesday afternoon.

On Monday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in widely reported remarks that it is “shameful” Canada still hasn’t hit the two-per-cent target.

The Business Council of Canada has warned the country risks “diplomatic isolation” that could harm its trading relations if it fails to meet the pledge it made in 2014. And at a panel discussion Tuesday in Washington, representatives from the three Baltic countries that border Russia called for NATO members to go even further than the current two-per-cent target.

“When you have club rules, then you respect the rules and you expect that everyone will also respect the rules,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

Both Blair and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly have said that Canada will inevitably hit the two-per-cent target. But the government has never presented a plan that shows when that will happen — something that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signalled was an expectation when he visited Ottawa on June 19.

Trudeau suggested again Tuesday that Canada is aware it is being pushed to do more.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/fed...63a97e4a1.html