The harsh truth from a friend
Canada needs to return to our roots as a dependable ally
Sometimes you need to hear the harsh truth from a friend. United States Senator Dan Sullivan is a good friend to Canada. While the Prime Minister and some pundits may not believe that following the Senator’s tough talk about Canada at the Armed Services Committee last week, we should thank Senator Sullivan for saying publicly what most of our allies have been saying privately for a few years now. Our friends see Canada as a free rider on defence and security issues and they know that is out of character for a country known to be a dependable ally.
Sullivan did not sandbag Ottawa with his comments on Canadian defence spending. He has been consistently making these points to our diplomats, federal and provincial political leaders and the wider public for many years. In fact, he is one of the few American Senators who has actually travelled to Ottawa, outside of formal state or committee visits, to advocate on important bi-lateral issues between our countries.
Unfortunately, the Senator’s desire to engage on defence, economic and environmental issues was often met with indifference by the Canadian government. Even in the heart of the difficult NAFTA negotiations, when we were relying on friendly Republican officials like Sullivan to try and talk some sense to the Trump administration, our diplomatic efforts in the United States were completely tone deaf. Our embassy was prioritizing the northern porcupine caribou herd as the top Canadian diplomatic issue and were going around the Alaskan congressional delegation to engage with other lawmakers on an issue that was not a priority for the administration or Congress. Canadian MPs visiting the U.S. were told to raise Alaskan/Yukon wildlife issues with Representatives from southern states when all Members of Congress of both stripes wanted to talk about was trade and concerns about China. Our diplomacy was ineffective and actually alienated friends in Congress. Canada was talking caribou when we should have been talking steel and aluminum.
We need to be much more strategic as a country and that means leveraging relationships where there are shared priorities and goodwill. Senator Sullivan is a good example because he cares about Canada and our actions for a number of reasons. First, he is a border Senator from a critical region of North America in terms of security. As the junior Senator for Alaska, he is very knowledgeable about our country and has developed strong relations with federal and provincial officials in British Columbia. He wants our countries to partner more for our mutual benefit, whether it is for North American defence or trying to propose solutions to preserve the billions of dollars in economic activity from the Alaska cruise ship industry amid the COVID pandemic.
Second, his professional background demonstrates a long standing commitment to bilateral and multi-lateral diplomacy. He should be a top person to engage in areas of our national interest. He is not a career politician or populist swept into office, but a lawyer and experienced foreign policy expert who wants to enhance U.S. alliances at a time when many voices in Washington are advocating isolationism. As a young lawyer, Sullivan served in the Bush Administration advising on economic and security issues ultimately rising to his appointment as an Assistant Secretary of State. As I learned recording a Blue Skies podcast last year, he worked closely with great friends to Canada like former World Bank President and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
The biggest reason Sullivan has concern about Canadian inaction on defence and security is because he has served in uniform and knows that our two countries have supported one another for generations. He wants to see Canada return to its role as a dependable friend. Sullivan is a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps and has 30-years of service with the Marine Corps. His service began with active duty in the 1990s and then transformed into decades of service in the reserves, where he would have had the difficult challenge of juggling his public service alongside his military service. Better than most people in the U.S. Senate, Sullivan understands the critical importance of the Arctic region to the defence of North America and has consistently raised risks to the region. Since his election to the Senate in 2015, he has spoken consistently about the build up of resources, military presence and geopolitical interest in the Arctic by our geopolitical rivals Russia and China. Senator Sullivan has been advocating for increased investment in Alaska and the modernization of the NORAD North Warning and Ballistic Missile Defence systems, which should be areas of mutual interest to our countries.
In my last meeting with him in Washington last year, Sullivan was very excited about the pending establishment of the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Nothing shows the seriousness of the Americans in the north more than the fact that the US Army activated a new airborne division for the first time in 70 years to bolster its presence there. The 11th Airborne will unite 12,000 soldiers in Alaska under one airborne division. This is an example of hard power in the Arctic and something Senator Sullivan has been advocating for since he was first elected.
I was excited about this news too because hundreds of Canadians - including my grandfather - served at Elmendorf. This will likely come as a surprise to many Canadians, but Canadians deployed to the United States during the Second World War and flew missions out of remote Alaskan stations. In fact, on New Years Day 1943 Elmendorf Air Force Base notified No. 8 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force that my grandfather, Pilot Officer George W. Woods, was to be awarded the Air Force Cross for flying 62 missions amid some of the most challenging flying conditions of the war. I wrote about my grandfather a few years ago and this wartime service of Canadians in Alaska should be viewed as the starting point of North American joint defence. This is our legacy and Canadians should be proud of it.
Canada used to be a Leader and not a Laggard
Much like Senator Sullivan, I long for Canada to return to its natural state of being a dependable ally. In fact, we were historically the most dependable ally in North America having entered both world wars before our American friends. There is a sad irony in the fact that we are now viewed as a free rider on home defence, when the first example of North American defence was actually Canadians deploying to the United States. My grandfather and hundreds of other brave Canadians deployed to Alaska to defend the United States (and North America) from the threat from Japan during what became known as the Aleutians campaign.
NORAD is Canada’s most important homeland security alliance and it grew out of the establishment of the Joint Permanent Board of Defence in 1940. The United States had not yet entered the Second World War, but was already wanting to coordinate North American defence with their closest ally and neighbour. President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King met in Ogdensburg, New York to establish a coordinated approach to homeland defence. This is what led to the RCAF being deployed to Alaska following Pearl Harbour. RCAF X Wing was based out of Elmendorf Air Force Base and several other remote air stations across the state of Alaska. We also deployed ground troops, including the famed First Special Service Force (the Devil’s Brigade) joint unit of Canadians and Americans in defence of our shared homeland.
Knowing that Senator Sullivan has been frustrated by the indifference and inaction of Canada in recent years, I presented a small gift to the Senator when we met in Washington to remind him of the friendship and history between our countries. I shared the story of my grandfather and the Canadians of X Wing, and with the help of the Canadian War Museum I presented him with a print of the striking painting Royal Canadian Air Force Briefing Before Kiska by war artist Paul Goranson. Kiska is an Aluetian Island that is part of the state of Alaska. It was captured by the Japanese during the war and retaken by American and Canadian troops operating together in the most remote corner of North America in Operation Cottage. The 80th anniversary of this early American-Canadian joint operation falls on August 15th.
With this long history in mind, it was very positive news when National Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the Canadian commitment to modernize the North Warning System last year. The North Warning System is the modernization of early warning in the arctic and is an update to the historic Dew Line of the early decades of NORAD. This investment in our security and sovereignty is also a great example of reconciliation as the Inuit firm Nasittuq will be involved in the operations and servicing of these important radar facilities. I am quite sure that Minister Anand was pushing for even more investment in northern sovereignty and NORAD operations. Like many, I was disappointed to see her shuffled out of the Defence portfolio, but hope that she can maintain her keen eye for the region with her economic role holding the purse strings with Treasury Board.
Is Canada Back?
Whether at Vimy Ridge, Kiska or Kandahar, Canada has historically been known as a country that can be counted upon. We are never an aggressor or the largest military presence in multi-lateral operations, but the true Pearsonian tradition is for Canada to play a serious role in the world commensurate with our abilities, interests and values. Sadly, that is not the case at present.
Canada is one of the largest laggards in NATO with respect to the commitment all alliance members have made to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence.
Canada has not made our foreign aid commitment of 0.7% of GDP and aid investments have been decreasing on a relative basis in recent years.
Canada has not made any of its climate change emission targets since signing on to the Paris Accord in 2015 and is lagging on most of its planning to do so.
With our record at present, we should not have been surprised when Canada had its worst showing ever in the 2020 United Nations election for a temporary seat on the Security Council. This vote along with public commentary from friends like Senator Sullivan, should be a wake up call for our country. The world is expecting more from Canada and with the current state of geopolitics we should expect more from ourselves.
I agree wholeheartedly. I am extremely disappointed in Trudeau government’s half-baked notions on national defence. What a disgrace! My cousin I don’t know how many times removed, Frank Reid, was killed in Belgium in 1917. He had lied about his age with his father’s approval and signature to sign up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. My half brother was a colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and instrumental in the development of our Dew Line. Minister Anand was doing a bang up job pushing for more defence spending. She is no light weight with a very impressive résumé, more so than Trudeau’s. I expect that’s why she was so unceremoniously shuffled out and demoted to Treasury Board. She is too much of a threat to Trudeau to continue in a high profile situation and apparently she had leadership ambitions, as well she should, that Trudeau can’t tolerate. Now she’s part of the economic trio so to speak with Duclos and Freeland who also undoubtedly is eyeing the leadership. Mélanie Joly meanwhile continues to globetrot trumpeting Canada’s role as a “convening nation”, whatever that means. I would prefer her to take more substantive measures, but then she might pose too much of a threat to le roi Trudeau who rules his caucus and cabinet much like Louis XIV once ruled Versailles. However, the sun king also recognized after ceding Canada, our quelques arpents de neige, to Great Britain in return for keeping the sunnier.climes of Caribbean islands that sunny ways soon cloud over and reportedly stated, “Après moi le déluge”. Trudeau should take heed and prepare his succession plan more carefully instead of effectively benching some of his best players. Canadians want the very best making decisions vital to our country’s future or we will have no country left to defend.