Canada closer to joining Golden Dome in secret talks
CBC learns deal includes space weapons
Good morning – here is your Saturday newsletter. Readership has spiked in recent weeks with talks over Golden “Doom” as my friend Dennis Gruending dubs it.
My thanks to everyone who supports this peace education work as a paid subscriber. I am also grateful to the editors at National Newswatch for carrying PeaceQuest in their widely-read and influential political news website, reaching many thousands of new people.
In peace,
Steve
Canada is moving closer to joining Trump’s Golden Dome scheme, despite widespread opposition expressed by the public in a new poll.
CBC News and Radio Canada are exposing what’s contained in a draft Canada-U.S. trade and security deal.
According to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation, the document has been sent back and forth between Ottawa and Washington. CBC News has not seen the document, but one source with direct knowledge of the situation tells Radio-Canada that it is fewer than five pages.
The source says it states that Canada is willing to participate in the Golden Dome security program, proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Carney dumps Canada’s policy against space weapons
Canada has been opposed to the placement of weapons in space, where there are none today, since U.S. President Reagan originally proposed his “Star Wars” plan in the 80s. Canada declined to participate.
Again, exactly twenty years ago in February, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin said no to President George W. Bush’s ground-based missile system, upholding Canada’s opposition.
But all that changed three weeks ago when President Trump announced he intends to put weapons in space to intercept missiles aimed at the United States, and astounded everyone by revealing Canada’s support for the project in the same breath.
“Today I am pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the art system that will deploy next-generation technology across the lands, sea and space including space-bases sensors and interceptors, and Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it,” said Trump on May 20. (emphasis added)
Prime Minister Carney has downplayed the matter, but says he is open to talks and has placed no caveats on Canada’s role, including the cost, contributing territory for U.S. bases and weapon system, control over its use, or even the amount of protection provided to Canada (making the big assumption it would work at all).
Trump names his price
President Trump has gone even farther than past presidents by actually naming his price for Canada: $83 Billion Canadian dollars ($61B U.S.). Or, as he wrote in a social media post, give up our nationhood, join the United States, and it will be free.
Without flinching, Prime Minister Carney announced this week a $9-billion jump in military spending to reach NATO’s arbitrary goal of 2% GDP in equivalent defence spending. The military’s shopping list is long, and Mark Carney did not say how much of this big spending will go to cover Trump’s Golden Dome invoice.
As The Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne points out, big cuts to other departments (health care?) could follow to pay for it all.
“And without further details, or a sense of how it would be paid for – Mr. Carney has ruled out raising taxes, so either there will have to be cross-government cuts in spending that were not previously advertised, or the deficit will have to go higher – it’s hard to judge how well considered this is,” he writes.
Golden Dome may not remove crippling tariffs
Of course the new trade and defence agreement being negotiated directly in calls and texts between Trump and Carney is aimed at reducing the crippling tariffs Trump has put on Canadian exports to the United States.
But the mercurial president has not indicated that Canada’s participation in Golden Dome will mean the removal of the tariffs. Quite the opposite. Trump’s Ambassador to Canada says no matter how the negotiations go, tariffs are likely here to stay.
And even if it did, nobody believes Trump can be relied upon to respect any agreement with Carney, given how easily he tore up the last free trade agreement he signed with Canada.
Early polling finds widespread opposition
A Nanos poll released this week finds most Canadians opposed to Golden Dome.
“Nearly 2 in 3 Canadians report believing that Canada should not be part of the American Golden Dome missile shield and instead spend on the capability of Canadian Armed Forces,” says Nanos. “Under one in five (17%) report believing that Canada should pay the price to be part of the American Golden Dome and one in five (20%) are unsure.”
Promise independence, but deliver integration?
Media commentators have been pointing out the fundamental contradiction of Carney’s election promise to move Canada away from reliance upon the United States, and his willingness to deeply integrate Canada with the Pentagon on Golden Dome. In response, Carney’s office has said voters mandated the government to join Golden Dome in the recent election. But nine out of ten PeaceQuest readers disagree, in a recent readers poll.
As Coyne puts it, “Standing up to Donald Trump, while steering a new, more independent course for Canada, including trade agreements with more ‘reliable’ partners, was all that he wanted to talk about during the election. Since then it’s been all about striking a new economic and security agreement with (checks notes) the United States, tightening up the border, perhaps even participating in Mr. Trump’s proposed ‘Golden Dome’ system of ballistic missile defence.”
Readers divided on transparency of talks with Trump
Last week we discussed the news, revealed by Trump’s Ambassador to Canada, that Prime Minister Carney and the U.S. President have been in direct talks by phone and text, unbeknownst to Canadians. I asked you, “Should PM Carney reveal more about his talks with Trump?”
Two-thirds of readers said, “Yes, the stakes are too high,” (61%), while a third felt the secrecy was necessary, answering, “No, he can’t negotiate in public” (29%).
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Steve
The temptation of power is to acquire a paternalistic view of your citizens. That temptation is at work here with the PM flirting with betraying his own words and Canadians will for the success and relief of a ‘deal’. It’s a critical character test for the PM. If he fails this test and now argues in the opposite direction, he will lose all this remarkable support from Canadians and never raise it again. It will affect all the other new policy drives he’s announced.