This is not a shock, because the US, i.e., the Trump 2.0 regime, has been threatening Canada with annexation since it took office.
Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled he hopes Canada will be able to sign on to a major European defence rearmament plan by July 1, a step toward reducing the country's dependency on the United States for weapons and munitions.But the timing is a surprise. July 1 is only a month away.
He made the remarks on CBC's Power & Politics following the speech from the throne, which committed his government to joining ReArm Europe.
The speech did not set out a timeline, but Carney said he wants to move aggressively.
"Seventy-five cents of every dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That's not smart," Carney told host David Cochrane. (2)
Canadian leaders will be in Brussels on 23 June for a summit with the leaders of the EU institutions – a potential date for such an agreement to be signed.
The EU has signed a number of similar defence and security pacts, most recently with the United Kingdom earlier this month. They are a pre-requisite for foreign countries who want to access the EU's joint weapons procurement programmes, backed by a €150 billion loan scheme known as SAFE. [my emphasis] (3)
Normal power-balancing logic would suggest that Canada would distance itself politically and even militarily from the US in the face of Trump’s annexation threats.
After the dramatic break with the European allies that Donald Trump displayed by his notorious reality-TV scolding of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on February 28, (4) European leaders have recognized that they not only have to spend more on military buildup over the next five years. And there is also a recognition that to have a military defense capability against Russia, Europe will have to build up its own defense industry – NATO countries are heavily dependent on US arms manufacturers now – and also create new defense arrangements not based on NATO structures.
And also to make sure that they are not dependent on any satellite controlled by Elon Musk:
The European Commission is figuring out how it could help Ukraine secure satellite communication capacity in the wake of Elon Musk reportedly threatening to pull Kyiv's access to his Starlink network.It’s obscene that a democracy-hating, Hitler-salute-giving multi-billionaire like Elon Musk could have the authority to turn off military satellites on which sovereign nations depend. And, of course, Musk has been a close ally of the far-right Trump 2.0 government.
Space-based communication systems are a critical tool for Ukraine, but it remains unclear whether Musk will continue to offer Starlink as the war grinds on.
Ukraine said last year it has about 42,000 Starlink terminals in operation in the country; about half are financed by Poland.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Kyiv had already "expressed interest" in how it could use Govsatcom — a pooled network of the EU's existing national government satellite capacity — and IRIS², a new constellation only set to be operational in the 2030s. [my emphasis] (5)
As old-fashioned as it may seem, it’s always worth keeping in mind President Dwight Eisenhower’s famous speech soon after he first took office as President:
A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations. …But European nations – and Canada – do have a real interest in drastically and quickly reducing their dependence on the US and the NATO structure. At the same time, it’s important for European countries to realistically evaluate Russian threats. Russia is acting in hostile ways toward Europe. That doesn’t mean it’s planning to launch a massive attack on the current NATO countries.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. (6)
But both NATO and the EU have treaty commitments to defend Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – all three former Soviet republics – and Russia could make an attack on one or more of those countries and seize territory without their national armies being able to immediate block the attempt. In this case, the much-overused “credibility” concern is real. As long as those treaty commitments remain, the allied European countries have to have contingency plans in place for such a Russian aggression, even though it may not be a immediate threat, i.e., something that could happen next week or next month.
Notes:
(1) Why Europe would consider inviting Canada into a defence pact. CBC News: The National YouTube channel 03/17/2025. <https://youtu.be/zRYM4d3n8Zw?si=YKQTHyCRot-nEFE1> (Accessed: 2025-01-06).
(2) Murray Brewster, Murray (2025): Carney says Canada is looking to join major European military buildup by July 1. CBC News 05/27/2025. <https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rearm-europe-deal-canada-carney-interview-1.7545303> (Accessed: 2025-30-05).
(3) Carney, Mark (2025): Canada wants defence partnership with EU amid US spat. Euractiv 05/30/2025. <https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence/news/canada-wants-defence-partnership-with-eu-amid-us-spat/> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).
(4) Zelenskyy's visit to the White House ends abruptly after Oval Office spat. NPR 02/28/2025. <https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5312076/zelenskyys-visit-to-the-white-house-ends-abruptly-after-oval-office-spat> (Accessed: 2025-30-05).
(5) EU to help Ukraine replace Musk’s Starlink. Politico 03/02/2025. <https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-to-help-ukraine-replace-musks-starlink/> (Accessed: 2025-30-05).
(6) Eisenhower, Dwight (1953): Address "The Chance for Peace" Delivered Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors. 04/16/1953. The American Presidency Project. <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-chance-for-peace-delivered-before-the-american-society-newspaper-editors> (Accessed: 2024-04-04).
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