Politics·Analysis

Trudeau tracker: Has the prime minister kept his promise on ISIS fight?

Of the roughly 200 campaign promises made by Justin Trudeau during last year's federal election, the pledge to rethink Canada's mission against ISIS contained few details — aside from promising to pull out Canada's CF-18s.

Prime minister meets his campaign promise of bringing home Canada's CF-18 fighter jets

Has the PM kept his promise on ISIS fight?

9 years ago
Duration 2:03
CBC's Chris Hall measures Justin Trudeau's campaign promise on the ISIS mission against his announcement today

This is the first of a regular segment on The National tracking the Liberal government's performance on its campaign promises.


Of the roughly 200 campaign promises made by Justin Trudeau during last year's federal election, the pledge to rethink Canada's mission against ISIS contained comparatively few details — aside from promising to pull out Canada's CF-18s.

The Liberal platform stated that if Trudeau was elected prime minister, his government would end the combat mission in Iraq and refocus Canada's military contribution in the region toward the training of local forces, while also providing more humanitarian support. 

That promise was made in the summer, before the deadly November attacks in Paris led to calls from the U.S. and France for a greater military role for countries that were part of the coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and the surrounding region. 

Since then, a number of polls have suggested rising support among Canadians for the continuation of airstrikes against ISIS targets, putting the prime minister on the spot as he has repeatedly been forced to defend his position in the House of Commons and through the media. 

On Monday, the Liberal government said that Canada's CF-18s would be coming home on Feb. 22, 2016.

Trudeau laid out the rest of his plan as well.

It will spend $1.6 billion over three years on a multi-channel approach that will funnel $1.1 billion toward humanitarian aid, social services and infrastructure development, $300 million toward a tripling of military trainers and another $145 million for non-military counterterrorism measures. 

It would appear, then, that Trudeau is sticking to his commitments made during the election, even if public opinion and the reality on the ground may have shifted since then.

Watch Chris Hall's complete analysis from The National in the video player above.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Hall

Former National Affairs Editor

Now retired, Chris Hall was the CBC's national affairs editor and host of The House on CBC Radio, based in the Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa. He began his reporting career with the Ottawa Citizen before moving to CBC Radio in 1992, where he worked as a national radio reporter in Toronto, Halifax and St. John's. He returned to Ottawa and the Hill in 1998.