Canadians have lots of reasons to be skeptical about increased defence spending

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources.

Leaked documents from the Pentagon have revealed what many suspected: Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has no intention of meeting the NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.

The story is hardly surprising — the last time Canadians saw this level of spending was under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government in 1990.

The report sparked a wave of recriminations over the poor state of Canada’s defence and security funding.

Complaints about the country’s lacklustre spending has become something of a time-honoured tradition. Canadians are told they are ignorant and complacent to the dangers of the world and need to spend more.

But what if we have the script backwards?

What if the problem isn’t public ignorance, but rather a defence and security community that refuses to face some hard truths about Canadian politics?

What if, instead of simply chastising Canadians, we spoke candidly about what may be entirely valid reasons for skepticism?

Confronting these hard truths may just be the first step in building genuine public buy-in for defence spending that has eluded the country for decades.

Read full article in the Carleton Newsroom.