Why would a lobby group representing top CEOs push to double Canadian military spending? Leading capitalists promote military spending because it is a source of significant profit and important to Canada’s largest trading partner. An institution born of colonialism and empire also reinforces class rule.
Recently the Business Council of Canada (formerly Canadian Council of Chief Executives) released a report calling on the government to increase military spending to 3% of GDP. Currently Canada devotes 1.37% of GDP to warfare but the lobby representing 170 top CEOs wants that to reach 2.5% over the next decade and even higher after. The BCC plan would add over $40 billion a year (in today’s dollars) to military spending. To cover an outlay nearly 20 times the size of Environment Canada’s budget, BCC is calling for cuts to other government departments.
A lobby group that includes grocery store head Galen Weston Jr., Power Corporation’s Paul Demarais Jr. and bank CEOs, BCC has long promoted militarism. They’ve organized tributes to the Canadian Forces, supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defence. In its 1981 “Canada’s Defence Policy: Capability Versus Commitments” the CEO lobby group bemoaned the “benign neglect and inadequacy of resources for nearly 20 years” that made the Canadian Forces “incapable of meeting the international military commitments which Canada has assumed.”
BCC supports the military because it represents a handful of arms producers that benefit from greater war spending. The heads of military providers CAE, MDA Space and Bombardier are represented on BCC. Beyond direct contracts, corporations in other high-tech sectors have benefited from Department of National Defence spending on research and development. The military, for instance, played a central role in stimulating Canadian computer technology and expertise. With a $400 million annual budget, Defence Research and Development Canada collaborates with the corporate sector on many initiatives.
In “Security & Prosperity: The Economic Case for a Defence Industrial Base Strategy” BCC proposes that military spending be used to subsidize other sectors because military procurement is exempt from trade agreements that generally prohibit nationalistic or “buy local” initiatives. They note, “dedicated defence innovation programs are vital as they are generally sheltered from the obligations of trade agreements. This provides the Government of Canada with ample leeway to support strategic sectors.”
Another important factor driving BCC support for the military is the (questionable) notion that Canada must increase military spending to maintain trade relations with the US. Security & Prosperity states, “Senior American officials have warned that a smooth review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — a trade deal ensuring the orderly flow of approximately $3.6 billion of goods and services across our shared border each day — will be tied to the Government of Canada strengthening its defence posture, including stepping up its industrial contributions to NATO.”
The Canadian Forces assist the US military through naval missions, special forces deployments, arms testing as well as by joining US-led wars in Korea, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya. Additionally, General Dynamics Canada, Lockheed Martin Canada, Boeing Canada and other US branch plants dominate Canada’s arms industry and thus benefit from greater spending. In a sign of Washington and the US military industrial complex’s influence, Defence Minister Bill Blair recently told Le Devoir he wanted to ramp up military spending to please Washington, but was constrained by the slow approval of a US Congress that needed to okay 70% of the arms and equipment Canada was purchasing.
An appendage of the US empire today, the Canadian Forces’ roots are in a British imperial force that brutally dispossessed First Nations and much of the world. After Confederation, the Canadian military suppressed First Nations and the Metis on the Prairies while assisting British forces in Sudan, South Africa, World War I, etc.
A little-known element of Canadian military history is its role in quelling labour unrest. Between 1867 and 1933 Canada’s militia aided the civil power at least 133 times and strikes represented half of all deployments. While technically designed to maintain law and order, writes Mike O’Brien, militia “intervention in industrial disputes … [were] in virtually all cases to the advantage of employers.”
The initial leaders of the militia were largely well to do. They were mostly British and the class lines in that country’s military were stark, with wealthy individuals purchasing officerships. While not as class stratified as Britain, early Canadian officers were rarely of working class, peasant or indigenous background.
In the 1890s the military began making the wealthy honorary colonels. Canada’s richest man, George Stephen, who was the principal shareholder of the Hudson’s Bay Company and co-founder of Canadian Pacific Railway, Lord Strathcona Donald Smith, were early honorary colonels. This was not by chance. Honorary colonels, notes Carman Miller, were “carefully chosen for their long purses.”
The military continues to offer honorary ranks to wealthy non-soldiers who are supposed to advocate for their regiment, advise on relevant policy matters and promote broader military interests. Dozens of well-to-do and ultra-wealthy individuals have received honorary ranks in recent years. In 2011 BCC member Blake Goldring was appointed first-ever honorary colonel of the Canadian Army. The ultra-wealthy hedge fund manager was previously honorary colonel of the Royal Regiment of Canada. Billionaire Frederick Mannix (his son is a BCC member) was honorary lieutenant-colonel or honorary colonel of the Calgary Highlanders between 1980 and 1994. André Desmarais (his son is a BCC member) is president of the honorary members of Les Voltigeurs de Québec, the army’s oldest French-speaking regiment. The Grand ami international de Les Voltigeurs has included American David Rockefeller, Venezuelan Gustavo Cisneros, German Riprand Arco-Zinneberg and a number of other ultra-wealthy individuals.
The Canadian Forces makes serious efforts to build relations with the “captains” of industry. They take influential individuals on “action- packed” multi-day navy operations through initiatives such as the Canadian Leaders at Sea Program.
The military and institutions it funds give out a slew of awards, such as the Meritorious Service Medal (military division) and Chief of Defence Staff Commendation, that sometimes go to corporate leaders. The DND-instigated and financed Conference of Defence Associations has given its prestigious annual Vimy Award to Blake Goldring and Frederick Mannix. The True Patriot Love Foundation gave its first Patriot Award for Outstanding Philanthropic Support of Canada’s Military Families to BCC member Paul Desmarais Jr. in 2014. In 2023 Galen Weston, who three years earlier took a four-month leave of absence from Loblaws to serve in the Reserves, received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Canadian Forces Liaison Council.
In the research for my 2021 Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People’s History of the Canadian Military I did not uncover a single representative of Canada’s four million unionized workers who received a militarist award or sat on the board of one of the many militarist institutions. While some individuals from academia, media and public institutions were recognized by militarist institutions, representatives of working-class organizations were not.
This exclusion is particularly striking given that the rank and file of the Armed Forces is largely working-class, mostly drawn from rural areas. The military leadership’s deliberate cultivation of ties with wealthy elites underscores the disconnect between its priorities and the socioeconomic background of its personnel.
At a broader cultural level military structures and norms reinforce hierarchy and class rule. Loyalty, conformity and obeying orders are important to the Canadian Forces. Capitalists like that and want to promote it. There’s little room to challenge authority or injustice and voting is nearly nonexistent. Capitalists also like that.
The Canadian Forces contradict pluralistic, democratic values. Evidently supporters of minority rule, of wealthy elites, support those values.
Canada’s leading capitalists promote the military for a simple reason. They perceive it is in their self-interest.
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