As Canada hits NATO 2% goal, Carney vows more as warfare ‘rapidly’ changes – National
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Canada is spending roughly two per cent of its GDP on national defence — a key NATO alliance commitment Ottawa previously failed to meet.
NATO accounting estimates released Thursday show Carney’s government met the key spending benchmark for 2025 by shelling out just over $63 billion.
“That’s the largest year-on-year increase in defence investment in generations,” he said after touring a navy vessel in Halifax.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said this announcement marks “the beginning of a new era for Canadian defence.”
“Canada needs to act with strength, purpose and urgency. We need to be ready, ready to defend. Ready to lead and ready to protect what matters most,” he said.
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At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, members “made a commitment to investing five per cent of GDP annually on core defence requirements and defence- and security-related spending by 2035.”
NATO states that allies “will allocate at least 3.5 per cent of GDP annually based on the agreed definition of NATO defence expenditure by 2035 to resource core defence requirements and to meet the NATO Capability Targets.”
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“When you look at the two per cent that we’re spending now, it’s core defence, and that needs to go, and this is a big move,” Carney said. “Our economy is obviously going to be bigger at that point. But it needs to go to 3.5 per cent by 2035. So, in 10 years, the other 1.5 per cent is spending on defence related.”
Carney noted that recruitment for the Canadian Forces is up by 13 per cent, which he says is a “very clear message.”
“In the areas related to defense, which is very broad, there’s going to be a very regular, deliberate investment year in and year out that is going to make this country stronger and make the economy stronger,” he said. “So, there’s a lot of opportunity that’s coming from this, and a government that’s dedicated to make sure we realize all the benefits of that.”
“The very nature of warfare is changing rapidly,” he added. “It’s driven by the proliferation of drones, autonomous systems, weapons in orbit. The world has changed, and we know that Canada must change with it.”
The issue is not a new one. But the situation really started to change when Canada fell under sustained pressure from U.S. political figures to boost defence spending.
U.S. President Donald Trump also has repeatedly warned NATO countries not to expect the U.S. to come to their aid if they don’t pay their share on defence.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said every alliance member has met the spending target for the first time — all because of Trump’s rhetoric about free riders in the alliance.
“I don’t believe that without the present American administration the whole of NATO would have been meeting the two per cent at the end of 2025,” Rutte told reporters at a press conference in Brussels Thursday.
“Big economies like Spain and Italy and Belgium and Canada were far from the two per cent.”
Rutte said that for too long, Europe and Canada were “over-reliant on U.S. military might.”
Carney campaigned during the Liberal leadership race on setting an earlier deadline for meeting the NATO target — 2030, two years earlier than the target date set by Justin Trudeau’s government.
Carney abruptly announced last summer his government would meet it immediately, moving up the schedule by years.
Conservative defence critic James Bezan said that “doesn’t mean that Canada is any stronger.”
“We know that through creative accounting that government spending in national defence has increased by over $10 billion. That hasn’t actually resulted in increased capabilities for the Canadian Armed Forces. It has not actually increased our own security or made us safer here at home,” he said.
“We want to just remind everyone that over $10 billion that the prime minister is bragging about today comes from other government departments.”
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Bezan also added that today’s announcement “just confirms that Canada has underinvested in defence.”
“Often, we say that we must not be dependent on the United States. But at the same time, it is the American president who forced Canada to move forward and move faster. It’s not very good for our credibility.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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