Military Policy of J. Trudeau's Government after Parliamentary Elections 2019: Promises and Reality

Abstract

Military policy of J. Trudeau's government is prudent and economical. Canada has refused a serious role in UN peacekeeping operations. By 2020 two of the three peacekeeping commitments undertaken by J. Trudeau's government in 2017 were formally fulfilled. In 2018 Canada sent a helicopter squadron to Mali and in 2019 dispatched a military cargo aircraft to Uganda. Both of these two Canadian peacekeeping missions in Africa are limited to one year. Nevertheless the volume of these peacekeeping commitments is so small that it doesn't allow to talk about any serious Canadian participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Canada is also refusing to comply with NATO (and the US) demand for an increase in military spending to 2% of GDP. Prime Minister J. Trudeau like his predecessor S. Harper emphasizes that the role of a country in NATO should not be assessed by the level of military spending as a percentage of GDP but by military contribution of this country in NATO activities. The main impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on Canadian military policy is that J. Trudeau's government may delay or even cancel expensive projects to purchase new military equipment because of massive expenditures for combating the epidemic.