The dearth of NDP pushback to Mark Carney’s radical military turn is remarkable. As the signs of Liberal warmongering grow, there’s barely a murmur of opposition from the party to this threat to the world and Canadian social programs.
On Friday the Ottawa Citizen reported on the military’s plan to expand the reserve by a whopping 1300%. Reportedly, the armed forces have established a “tiger team” to investigate how to boost the reserves to 400,000 personnel from the current reserve force of 28,000. This would almost certainly require some type of a draft or mandatory military service.
On Thursday Carney visited a South Korean shipyard as part of a plan to buy a dozen attack submarines. One of Canada’s largest ever discretionary purchases, it will likely cost $100 billion for submarines designed to bolster Ottawa’s ability to better assist the US war machine.
A day earlier the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report on military capital spending finding a $108 billion boost. It reports, “Under the federal government’s new defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence (ONSAF), the Department of National Defence (DND) is expected to spend $322.9 billion (on a cash basis) over the next 20 years. This is $108.1 billion more than forecast in the PBO’s 2024 report, which assessed capital spending under the previous defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE).”
In addition to the submarines, the government is spending $80 billion on surface combatant naval vessels equipped with long range Tomahawk missiles. They are also putting up $20 billion for offense-oriented fighter jets. In addition, Canada is spending billions of dollars on heavily armed Reaper drones and LAVs. They may also spend billions of dollars more to participate in Donald Trump’s Golden Dome air defence system.
All this spending on the machines of war empowers the monsters (Carney, Poilievre, Anand, and US-led military machine) who’ve enabled the live streamed holocaust in Gaza. The new weapons will give them greater capacity to intimidate and wage violence internationally, as the US is doing in Venezuela and Canada has done repeatedly in recent decades.
As Carney plows ever more resources into warfare, he’s cutting back the public service, gutting Canada Post, and letting important social programs expire. On Tuesday Carney looks set to propose an austerity budget for the working class while devoting staggering riches to the military industrial complex. They’ve found tens of billions of dollars for new military spending to placate Trump while cutting programs benefiting low-income people.
World Beyond War Canada and 350.org put out an Action Network email criticizing the budget and his plan to “quadruple Canadian military spending to record-breaking levels and buy horrific American weapons systems” while my NDP leadership campaign called on the party’s MPs to “vote against Trump-inspired war and austerity budget.” In another sign of pushback, last Friday activist Tamara Lorincz interrupted Defence Minister David McGuinty to criticize his plan to spend $150 billion on the military.
Unfortunately, the NDP’s statement on the budget is silent on increasing military spending. The other candidates in the NDP leadership race have also said little or nothing on the matter. Conversely, the platform for my campaign calls to:
“Stop Carneyʼs Militarization Project: ● Slash the defense budget. ● Refuse participation in the Golden Dome project. ● Redirect funding for the weapons industry to other non-destructive industries. Implement a ʻDestructive Taxʼ: ● Penalize the key beneficiaries of warfare — military and arms industries — to disincentive militaristic industry and activities and pay for some of the social costs of their destruction.”
The platform also calls for “No More Military Contracts: ● Halt procurement of F-35 fighter jets, armed drones, air surveillance equipment, LAVs, APCs and AI for military applications, and other war machinery. ● No more support for the production and sales of warships. ● End subsidies, rebates and loans to firms creating and selling items for military use.”
The introduction of the platform’s section on the military notes: “Canadians today face wildfires destroying communities, a collapsing public health system, and a deepening affordability crisis. Yet, in the face of these emergencies, we are told our greatest threats come from Russia and China. Public funds are increasingly redirected from social programs to military expansion, as the government narrowly considers ʻsafetyʼ only in terms of national security and preparations for war. Instead of voicing an alternate and progressive vision, the current NDP leadership has abandoned its historic verbal commitment to peace and restraint by echoing warmongering narratives and pledging loyalty to NATO, the U.S. empire, and the steady militarization of Canadian society.”
It’s time for change.
Please take a minute to email all NDP MPs to vote against a budget for war — and austerity for the rest.
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