This article originally appeared in National Newswatch.
By Robert W. Murray, September 19, 2024
By all metrics, Canada’s influence has not only fallen over the last two decades, but it has deteriorated even more rapidly in recent years.
There are many reasons for this, and some of the root causes are not new.
Canadians have always struggled to appreciate the need for strong foreign and defence policies, and to take Canada’s role in the world seriously. Canadians are complacent about international affairs because they can be. Canada is resource rich, it is far from conflict, and its greatest asset is bordering the United States.
Canadians are often comforted when they hear what it meant to be an effective “middle power” and a peacekeeper.
During the Cold War, Canada undoubtedly helped define what a middle power was and how to conduct “middlepowermanship.”
It shrewdly crafted a foreign policy based on multilateralism to navigate an independent place in the world by leveraging alliances and institutions for the advancement of national interests without the burdens of being a great power.
Canada also helped develop the concept of peacekeeping, starting with the 1956 Suez Crisis.
However, this global leadership was decades ago and has almost completely lost any real relevance.
Today, with recent foreign and defence policy problems, Canada is telling the world it’s far more interested in rhetoric and domestic politics than it is being a meaningful actor in international society. These problems include two consecutive failures to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council, seriously declining military and defence capabilities, and allies no longer believing Canada is part of the solution on the most pressing international problems.
The costs of no longer being a significant player are many. Canada’s ability to protect its interests politically or militarily is concerningly low, equalled by a stark inability to project its values or proactively pursue national interests in ways that are credible or successful.
Despite the current limitations, many Canadians remain apathetic, believing that Canada is still a peacekeeping nation or that in any major crisis our allies, most importantly the United States, would simply come to our defence.
The chorus of allies is becoming louder and louder in identifying the many shortcomings of Canada as a credible, effective, and trustworthy partner. Allies are concerned about its spending on national defence, its role in trade negotiations, and, at times, it has been left out entirely during major deliberations that Canada would have been part of historically, such as the AUKUS security partnership.
There is no easy solution and the journey back from irrelevance will be a long one for Canada.
Appeasing NATO allies, for instance, is not as simple as achieving a percentage of spending. Canada’s defence capabilities, technology, and assets are so long overdue for overhaul or replacement that it will take a long-term budgetary commitment of significant investment to reach even a baseline of defensive capabilities that would be able to protect our national interests.
Given the erosion of trust and effectiveness with allies and institutions, Canada must reinvest in a foreign policy that reflects its true current standing and rebuild credibility on the global stage if there’s to be any sense of hope in influencing global outcomes.
Perhaps most importantly, Canada needs a comprehensive review and a new international strategy that involves defence, foreign, and economic and trade policy priorities and spending that can holistically set the country on the path to relevance.
Canada has not conducted a proper international strategy review in so long that many Canadians would be hearing the concept for the first time. This process is integral to properly develop a coherent and proactive strategy that reflects how and why Canada will pursue its interests and behave globally in an evolving international order.
What has become clear is that Canada has eroded so much of its capital with allies and institutions that it must find its footing on all fronts to ensure its continued security.
Robert W. Murray is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
