The House: The Disruptor-in-chief goes to NATO
U.S. President Donald Trump took his confrontational approach to diplomacy to the NATO summit this week, where he sideswiped his fellow alliance leaders with a litany of accusations, questionable demands on spending levels and a sudden threat to pull out of the alliance entirely.
That has left national leaders — Canada's included — asking the same question they've been asking for almost two years now: what can be done to mitigate Trump's tactics?
Not much, says former Conservative defence minister Peter MacKay. His advice? "Keep calm and carry on."
MacKay told The House today that Canada needs to keep its focus on building its military capability, contributing to NATO missions and working toward other alliance goals. Beyond that, he said, there's little anyone outside the U.S. can do to rein in the president's behaviour.
"This is the new normal," MacKay said.
Trump has been pushing for the 29 allied nations that make up NATO to speed up their commitment to increasing defence spending to two per cent of GDP — a goal set in 2014 with a 10-year deadline.
Currently, most NATO nations aren't hitting that target. Trump emerged from the summit claiming he'd pressured the members into meeting his demands — although French President Emmanuel Macron quickly shot that claim down, pointing out that the summit communique only committed the allies to the two per cent target set before Trump was elected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada hadn't committed to spending new money on defence at this week's meeting in Belgium, but pointed to his government's plan to increase the defence budget by 70 per cent over the next decade to $32.7 billion.
In the middle of the meetings, Trump shifted the goalposts suddenly and argued that the spending benchmark should be increased to four per cent of GDP. Behind closed doors, his rhetoric was apparently alarming enough for NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to call an emergency session of leaders.
NBC News reported that Trump's threats to reassess the United States' commitment to NATO sent the Pentagon into damage control mode, with officials immediately reaching out to reassure their European counterparts.
Focus on the alliance, not Trump: retired general
It would be "impossible" for Trump to unilaterally pull out of NATO, Ben Hodges, a retired U.S. lieutenant general who led the NATO Allied Land Command, told The House.
But he can still do the alliance a lot of damage, he added.
"Cohesion of the members of the alliance is our centre of gravity," he said. "It's unfortunate when any leader pounds other members."
He added he thinks Trump has no understanding of how NATO works, although his advisers do.
Hodges said Trump has a valid point — that allies should be spending more on defence — but his fixation on the two per cent target is blinding him to the fact that NATO partners make other types of contributions.
Earlier this week, Trudeau announced that, beginning in the fall, Canada will assume command of a NATO training mission in Iraq for its first year, with a commitment of up to 250 troops and four helicopters.
Trump may not count that as a contribution to the GDP goal, Hodges said — but that just shows that spending isn't the only yardstick for measuring the alliance's success.
"This is not about satisfying the American president. This is about allies contributing to their share of the burden."
Matt DeCourcey, Parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, told The House Canada will continue to remain a "committed contributor" to NATO.
That might fall on deaf ears in the U.S., but MacKay said it's an important factor in stabilizing the alliance.
NATO is arguably the most important international organization Canada takes part in, and is "as important now as it ever was," he said.
That emphasis on solidarity will be key heading into Monday's meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The happiest guy on the planet right now is Vladimir Putin because he's watching the American president swing a wrecking ball towards the alliance," Hodges said.
"We're doing the job that Putin would normally have to do himself."
Unity vital between premiers as trade battle brews, Gallant says
Despite the conflicting policy views held by some of Canada's premiers, New Brunswick's Premier Brian Gallant is urging them to remain united as Canada faces an onslaught of trade challenges from the U.S.
Tensions between the provinces have been high in the past year — especially out west, where British Columbia and Alberta have been feuding over a thwarted expansion project for the Trans Mountain pipeline. Ottawa ended up buying the pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion.
Gallant, who is hosting next week's annual premiers meeting in New Brunswick, said he fully expects that topic to come up, along with the perennial irritant of interprovincial trade.
No matter what the dividing issues are this year, however, he said he's hoping all premiers keep an open mind.
"I think it's going to be very important as premiers to be as united as possible," he told CBC Radio's The House.
"There's a lot more that binds us together than divides us."
Remaining cohesive is key, given the trade war percolating between Canada and the U.S., Gallant said.
"Trade in all of its aspects will be top of mind next week."
Canada moved forward at the beginning of the month with $16 billion in tariffs against our southern neighbour — retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imposed a month before.
Gallant is advocating a "quicker" approach to getting an interprovincial free trade agreement up and running and said he expects his counterparts will agree, given the sour atmosphere hanging over trade talks with the U.S.
International and interprovincial trade aren't the only topics that have been causing friction in the federation lately.
The federal government has been under fire recently for renewing the existing equalization formula for another five years despite strong objections from some provinces. The extension kicks in next year.
Equalization, which is based on a highly complex formula, is designed to help poorer provincial governments provide public services that are reasonably comparable to those in other provinces.
Saskatchewan has expressed its displeasure with the federal government's methods for calculating equalization payments and its government has suggested an alternative plan.
Premier Scott Moe made a formal request to add equalization to the meeting's agenda, Gallant said, but that schedule was solidified weeks ago.
He told guest host Katie Simpson he'd invited Moe to bring it up in the open portion of the meeting.
The premiers will be in St. Andrews, N.B., from July 18-20.
Father of bullying victim Rehtaeh Parsons calls Ford's sex-ed repeal 'infuriating'
The father of a girl who died after a suicide attempt that followed months of bullying and an alleged sexual assault says the Ontario government's decision to repeal the province's sex education curriculum will put more teens in danger.
On Wednesday, the newly-elected Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford announced the sex-ed curriculum to be taught to children in the coming school year will be an older version — not the controversial updated program brought in by the previous government.
The curriculum will revert back to the version taught in 1998, excluding recently added topics such as same-sex marriage, masturbation, online bullying and sexting.
"It's infuriating to see them do this," Glen Canning told CBC Radio's The House on Friday, adding that teaching consent in schools might have made all the difference for his daughter, Rehtaeh Parsons.
In November 2011, the Nova Scotia teen attended a party where she said she was sexually assaulted.
An explicit photo was taken during the incident — one that would be spread among the kids at her school and lead to months of online bullying.
Seventeen-year-old Rehtaeh was taken off life support in April 2013 after attempting suicide.
Canning said he believes that if Ontario's modernized — and soon to be replaced — sex ed curriculum had been in place in Nova Scotia at the time, his daughter might still be alive.
"I think I'd still have my daughter with me right now."
Canning said repealing the curriculum means children and teens in Ontario won't learn about topics that can help them feel safer in school — like consent, LGBT issues and sexual violence.
He accused Ford of scrapping the curriculum to appease his party's socially-conservative voters.
Ford's new education minister, Lisa Thompson, said the government is planning to consult with parents on a new curriculum to replace the one adopted in 2015.
But Canning said too many parents are failing to teach their kids the facts about sex, sexual exploitation and bullying now. If schools and parents fail to address these topics properly, he said, more teens will suffer the way his daughter did.
"What happened to my daughter was preventable ... it was preventable with a good sex education program."