Can Avi Lewis defeat the “Defence” Lobby?
Media gives new NDP leader a rough ride over his anti-war policies
If you follow defence politics, you’ll know the NDP has never opposed big increases to military spending.
Now that may be about to change.
Avi Lewis was elected Leader of the New Democratic Party last weekend on a platform that included ambitious new public social programs, environmental policies, and more fair tax policies.
But one of his policies stands out the most for me: his opposition to Prime Minister Carney’s planned quadrupling of Canada’s military spending to meet NATO’s 5% of GDP for defence spending target.
(Full disclosure: Avi Lewis’ team reached out to me early in his leadership for input to his campaign).
A new direction for the NDP on military spending?
The NDP has been the “anti-war party” consistently on matters of foreign policy: ending the war in Afghanistan, rejecting U.S. missile defence, calling for nuclear disarmament, and blocking arms sales to Israel and others.
But past NDP leaders from Jack Layton to Jagmeet Singh have supported successive military budget boosts, massively overpriced warships, and have been generally absent on the F-35 boondoggle (read Brad Lavigne’s excellent book to learn why).
That’s what makes Lewis’ leadership so unique, right out of the starting gate.
Media reaction to Lewis’ “left-wing” victory
The media has been saying plenty about Avi Lewis’ election as the new leader of the struggling federal New Democratic Party: his famous family, his left-wing policies, and his party’s public divisions. But some of the coverage has been downright dismissive.
In response, Lewis has pointed out the media has been pressing him on his progressive policies, asking “How are you going to pay for it?” while hardly challenging the Carney government’s planned quadrupling of military spending.
“Let’s ask Mark Carney how he’s going to fund half a trillion dollars of military investments in the next decade because he announced a defence industrial strategy earlier this month and I haven’t heard a single reporter ask him how he’s going to pay for it,” Avi Lewis said to CBC’s Jayme Poisson.
One of the best interviews that covers this topic was on our favourite podcast, CBC’s Front Burner.
Here are a few quotes from Avi Lewis on the program earlier this week:
“[A national network of publicly-owned grocery stores will require] from the federal government $300 million a year. One half of 1% of our current defence budget versus half-a-trillion dollars of proposed new military spending in the Prime Minister’s defence industrial strategy. Who is getting asked questions about whether or not we can afford it? Of course, we can afford it.”
“I’m not a kumbaya singing peacenik. I believe that Canada needs a military; a modern military which is well equipped. On the other hand, just this year we have poured tens of billions of dollars willy-nilly into the defence budget just to meet an arbitrary target that we did not meet for many, many, many years, and still were able to be members of NATO.”
“Suddenly Donald Trump started calling people to the carpet and Carney arrives and suddenly we’re making the 2% [GDP] with three-quarters of our defence spending going directly to the United States…three-quarters of that money directly to the arms companies of the country that is threatening to annex us.”
“We have to be serious with Canadians about where this money is going, what it’s paying for, and how it makes us safer. And I don’t see the even a value proposition offered, just an arbitrary target and a fountain of public dollars in the immediate short term and going forward into the next decade without a clear map or a drawing or a sketch even of what it’s supposed to get us that’s going to make us so much safer.”
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Last week’s poll results
Last week, PeaceQuest looked at Canada’s military commitments to the war in the Persian Gulf, and the government’s caveat that troops will only be sent in the event of a ceasefire. I asked readers, “Should Canada send troops to the Middle East, only following a ceasefire?”
Two-thirds said that even with a ceasefire, Canada should not send troops (66%), while one quarter agreed it was OK (25%).
Reader comments:
“Let Trump and Israel clean up their own bloody mess.” - C. Kobayashi
“A condition of my response to send troops is if a ceasefire is brokered Canada would be clear that we are working on an impartial basis to ensure non violence is maintained while negotiations occur.” - T. Dunn
“No - [it’s] an unjust/ immoral war to change the news from his scandals.” - D. Hall
“No troops to Iran. Canada has long stood for peaceful negotiations to end war.” - H. Hannah
It's a wise move not only because diplomacy is much less expensive than military spending, but also because many Canadians -- correctly in my view -- see U.S. military spending as dangerous to all of us (including citizens of the U.S.). I believe most of us see better uses for such a vast amount of money -- health care and education and even postal service, for heavan's sake. And for the NDP, it is wise to pick something that truly differentiates us from the Liberals at a time when there are three federal by-elections happening.
The whole economic strategy of the federal and Ontario provincial governments is smashing Canada against the wall faster: -Squeeze everything out of people's energy and the land's resources to feed the growth machine owned by ever fewer humans in the hope of trickle down. -That would be the program. Drawing the line, inquiring about the purpose of spending and the details of the vision is essential for a future with sanity.