The leader of Canada’s main opposition party, Pierre Poilievre, says he will cut foreign aid to pay for stronger Arctic security.
Poilievre, likely to win the next election, wants to build a new military base in the Arctic, double the number of local rangers (from 2,000 to 4,000), and buy more icebreaker ships.
He believes this will help protect Canada’s vast, frozen northern region, which is over 4.4 million square kilometers. According to Reuters, Poilievre claims the U.S. Pentagon has warned about possible Russian activity in the Arctic, making this plan necessary.
Poilievre says the money for these projects will come from reducing foreign aid. He argues that a lot of Canada’s foreign aid goes to “dictators, terrorists, and global bureaucracies,” calling it “wasteful and corrupt.”
However, he did not provide specific details about which programs or countries would be affected. Reuters reports that Canada spent about $11.2 billion on foreign aid in the 2022-23 fiscal year, funding nearly 3,000 projects in over 100 countries.
This plan comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Canada for not spending enough on defense. Trump has even threatened to impose tariffs on Canada.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is also cutting its own foreign aid, with plans to shut down parts of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provided $72 billion in aid in 2023.
Polls show that Poilievre’s Conservative Party is likely to win the next election, which must happen by October but could occur sooner.
If they win, they would replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which has been in power for nine years. Reuters notes that the International Development Minister’s office did not immediately comment on Poilievre’s proposal.
In simple terms, Poilievre wants to bring Canada’s money “back home” by cutting aid to other countries and using it to strengthen Arctic security.
Whether this plan will work or not remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the Arctic is becoming a bigger focus for Canada’s defense strategy.
(Credit: Reuters for original reporting and details.)