Michel Maisonneuve: Canada doesn't matter to the rest of the world — and it's our own fault
Trudeau's neglect for the military has atrophied our diplomatic muscle to a point of international embarrassment

Michel Maisonneuve, Special to National Post
Published Jan 06, 2024
The relative peace we have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War has never been as challenged as it is today, and Canada, once a reasonably formidable player on the international stage, has no role in shaping the world’s uncertain future. Our military and diplomatic capabilities have been permitted to diminish, and major voices in both defence and business have taken to warning the rest of us of the consequences.

Perrin Beatty, former minister of national defence and current CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, decried the woeful state of Canada’s presence on the world stage last weekend in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This was not Beatty’s first public plea to end the government’s complacency and take defence seriously. In 1987, as minister of defence, he tabled a white paper proposing to rearm the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), increase funding and add nuclear submarines to the fleet. His idea was good then and it is good now.

In November, Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, published a video explaining the dire state of the force. Among other problems, Topshee reported that only one of the navy’s new offshore patrol vessels can only be deployed at a single time due to personnel shortages. The navy’s old Halifax-class frigates, he added, will remain Canada’s “only surface combatants” for at least 15 years despite being at the end of their design life.

I am sure the Privy Council Office was unhappy to see Topshee’s video, but the navy’s sailors must have been relieved to see their commander telling it like it is.

More recently, Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC), was quoted Dec. 31, telling the blunt truth that Canadians are “overly comfortable” in spite of the deteriorating international situation. The CJOC commands and coordinates all military operations in Canada and abroad, so Auchterlonie is uniquely aware of all the hotspots in the world and the potential for regional conflicts to escalate into broader war.

Auchterlonie spoke to the current situation as he knows it, and I am glad he did. Canadian Armed Forces personnel are doing an amazing job with very little funding, equipment and government support. They are the best, but they are tired. It is difficult to imagine them being stretched further and perhaps being placed in harm’s way, but the current global situation may produce just that scenario.

These issues feed into bigger issues concerning international diplomacy. Auchterlonie correctly points out that we are too complacent, enjoying the cocoon of comfort provided by three oceans and a big brother to the south. Beatty notes that Canada is increasingly irrelevant on the global stage, and that our diplomatic muscle has atrophied.

At Global Affairs Canada, our diplomats must be feeling as downtrodden as the military, fraught with Chinese interference in elections and in the day-to-day lives of Chinese Canadians, allegations of an assassination on Canadian soil by India that remain unproven and managing flip-flopping positions on the Hamas terrorist attack of October. Abandoning Israel, our friend and staunch ally, by voting in December for a United Nations motion denying the country its right to self-defence, Canada has now been publicly thanked by Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad.

Meanwhile, aid promised by Canada to Ukraine in the form of a $400 million air defence system, which provided the Prime Minister’s Office with photo-ops, has yet to arrive a year later. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz was turned away from Canada in 2022, Trudeau’s explanation being that there “has never been a strong business case” to export natural gas.

Now, Canada is being excluded from alliances and treaties like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), as well as AUKUS, a security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The point that seems to elude our government and many Canadians is that our weight in international diplomacy is a function of our military capability; we must be able to fly the flag on international missions and participate with our allies in exercises to be taken seriously. Right now, our ability is severely restricted. While the U.S., France and U.K. have all shot down Houthi missiles in the Red Sea, Canada has contributed only three staff officers to Operation Prosperity Guardian.

Beatty supported the government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy in his letter, and so do I. But a strategy requires the means to accomplish it, and the chief of the defence staff only has a finite number of ships. We had three ships in the Pacific over the last few months, but they have now returned home. What will Canada do now? When will we send more? There are not enough crews to outfit the few ships we have left, and many of them need to be refit.

In his video, Topshee warned that Canada’s new surface combatants won’t be ready for many years. What are the diplomats in Asia going to do without that support? No Canadian presence, no port visits. Sorry, Japan, no one from Canada will be around for a few years. Sorry, Australia, we wish we could exercise with you as part of AUKUS, but we do not belong. Sorry, U.S., although we have a senior officer and some staff at Indo-Pacific Command headquarters, this will not translate into a greater Canadian presence in the area.

Canada’s armed forces have been neglected for many years, and no one in cabinet — especially the prime minister — cares. Our minister of national defence, Bill Blair, is new to the portfolio and has probably seen the real status of the forces; will he have the guts to demand the prime minister pay more attention to the military? Blair’s predecessor, Anita Anand, probably did, and she was removed. So who will do it? I am glad military leaders are speaking out. More Canadians need to tell our political leaders we support our CAF and the difficult situation they are in.

So thank you, Perrin Beatty, for your letter to the prime minister, and for pointing out that neglect for the CAF has repercussions that go far beyond the military. A capable CAF would improve our reputation abroad and show Canadians that their country is a nation that matters — as it has been in the world wars and operations since.
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Lt.-Gen. (retd.) Michel Maisonneuve spent 35 years in the CAF and 10 more as Academic Director of RMC Saint-Jean. He served as the last Chief of Staff of NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Atlantic and the first Chief of Staff of NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Va. He was named the 30th annual laureate of the Vimy Award in 2020.