Will Canada ever hit 5% on defence, and will we contract it out to China...

It's an ambitious and doubtful commitment that Mark Carney just made at NATO.

Will Canada really increase our defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035?

That’s the claim; we won’t know if it will be reality for some time. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, some of this is just reorganizing existing spending, such as putting the Coast Guard and their $4.5 billion budget under DND’s umbrella.

But getting our defence spending to $150 billion, that's the current estimate, would be a massive undertaking.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney made clear in his announcement, a lot of what will count as defence spending, won’t actually be defence spending.

“The world is increasingly dangerous and divided. Canada must strengthen our defence to better protect our sovereignty, our interests, and our Allies. These investments won’t just build our military capacity – they will build our industries and create good, high-paying jobs at home. If we want a more secure world, we need a stronger Canada,” Carney said.

There is also the fact that the agreement among NATO countries will be reviewed in 2029, after Donald Trump’s final term is over. That appears to be a built in escape clause that will allow the leaders to say, “We’ve done enough” in four years' time.

They shouldn’t assume that just because Trump is out of office that the Americans won’t still be pressuring allies to up defence spending.

First off, J.D. Vance could replace Trump and President, and he would surely continue on this path. So too might whoever wins for the Democrats.

Every American President since at least Bill Clinton, has been asking Canada, and other NATO allies, to boost their defence spending. Obama even made the call from the floor of the House of Commons while giving a speech to Parliament.

Donald Trump was the only President able to get the job done and see NATO leaders not only commit, but actually act.

I have my doubts that we will get to $150 billion in defence spending, or whatever 5% of our GDP is by 2035. I don’t doubt that American pressure to properly fund our military will not be going away.

Will China build our military too...

Turns out the purchase of those new ferries that British Columbia is paying China to build were financed by the feds. The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Canada Infrastructure Bank has given B.C. Ferries a low interest loan of $1 billion to complete the transaction.

That’s odd, because as the Globe pointed out, Transportation Minister Chrystia Freeland blasted the purchase last week in a letter to her B.C. counterpart Mike Farnworth.

The letter referenced a previous $75-million loan by the CIB for four other ferries and Ottawa’s annual grant for ferry operations, but did not mention that the bank is also providing $1-billion in low-interest loans for the specific purchase she was criticizing.

The letter also called on Mr. Farnworth to “verify and confirm with utmost certainty that no federal funding will be diverted to support the acquisition of these new ferries.”

Oooops!

Liberal gun program fails, shocker...

It was always doomed to fail, but then again that shouldn’t be a surprise it was an idea that came from Justin Trudeau. I’m talking about the so-called gun “buy back” program that Trudeau announced with great fanfare in May 2020.

He instantly made an estimated 150,000 legal guns illegal with the stroke of pen when he signed an Order in Council.

The plan was to eliminate what the government falsely calls “military assault-style" weapons by making them prohibited and then the government buying them from their licenced owners. The problem is, more than five years later, they haven’t bought any of the guns from individual owners, just a few thousand from businesses.

Tristin Hopper is taking a look at an internal report showing that that the government was warned their program was doomed to fail. He’s also got some of the crazy numbers on the cost.

Hint: It’s outrageous.

Clouds over the Bluesky...

American Vice-President J.D. Vance is having fun trolling Democrats and other lefties over on Bluesky, the safe-space alternative to X. It seems he is having fun, but many users object to him being there and are making that clear in the comments.

I joined Bluesky a little while ago and Canadian users had a bit of a meltdown. The meltdown must have included complaints because the company shut down my account within days, so much for free speech.