From Kelly Craft, the former
U.S.
ambassador to Canada,
in the Globe and Mail:
"Mr. Trump is indeed likely to return. U.S. President Joe Biden is the
most unpopular president since the end of the Second World War. He recently hit a
new low of 37.4 per cent approval in the FiveThirtyEight average of polls, while
86 per cent of Americans say he is too old for another term. He faces
double-digit disapproval on every issue. So, as a friend of Canada, my message is simple: Buckle up and get ready for a second Trump presidency.
Mr. Trump’s return will be good for North America and the NATO alliance. Mr. Trump raised U.S. defence spending to near-historic highs. He made America
an energy superpower again. He
eliminated the Islamic State’s physical caliphate. He took out Iran’s terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani. He brokered not one but three Arab-Israeli peace accords. And he is the only president in the 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade one of its neighbours.
But Mr. Trump is going to expect some things from our allies – particularly from our closest ally. Canada is the
sixth-wealthiest country in the NATO alliance. Yet it is
sixth from the bottom in terms of defence spending. At the 2014 NATO summit in Wales, Canada agreed that all allies must spend a minimum of 2 per cent of GDP on defence. Well, here we are a decade later and Canada is spending just
1.38 per cent of GDP on defence – behind Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The only NATO allies who spend less on defence are Slovenia, Turkey, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg.
...
But what President Trump is not going to do is allow the American people to carry the lion’s share of the burden while allies don’t pull their weight. Canada needs to step up and spend more on its own defence and provide more help to Ukraine.
It’s in Canada’s interests to do just that. The vast majority of the military aid money we provide for Ukraine does not actually go to Ukraine – it is being spent in the U.S. to build new weapons or to replace weapons sent to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles, reinvigorating our defence industrial base and creating good-paying manufacturing jobs for American workers. The same should be true in Canada.
...
I know this is a tough message. But it is delivered by a friend who loves this country. Canadian and U.S. forces have stood together from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of Afghanistan. We are each other’s largest trading partner. And we share a common North American heritage. I believe that a second Trump term will strengthen NATO and usher in one of the greatest eras in U.S.-Canada relations – if Canada does its part."
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