Photo by Captain Greg Juurlink/Canadian Armed Forces/Facebook

I recently listened to a report on CBC Radio about Canada and NATO military expenditure—hardly a new topic because the Canadian population is apparently now being primed regularly for increased military spending. This particular report wasn’t unusual; it made typical claims through a combination of one-sided reporting reinforced with selective bits of audio from the usual ‘hawks’ that a dramatic increase in military spending is very much needed. This imperative is now often presumed to be self-evident, although towards the end of this particular segment it was spelled out by one of the interviewees, in case people needed a reminder, that Russia is out to get ‘us’—the ‘us’ being NATO members. When further fear mongering is necessary China, North Korea and Iran can be brought into the picture.

Just how Russia is gunning for Canada and NATO isn’t ever explained, because any explanation would sound too ridiculous. For NATO members in Europe, mere proximity to Russia is taken as reason to fear it. Just what they are fearing is unclear. Russian troop levels on their borders are clearly not high as any reasonable open-source assessment will attest. Whatever combat-ready Russian forces (as opposed to residual and training elements at home bases) are present is arguably a response to NATO forces being deployed to Russia’s border, such as in Operation Reassurance in Latvia, involving a brigade-sized NATO ground force in which Canada currently has 1,900 troops deployed, with plans for 2,200 troops by 2026.

In the rare instances that the notion of a current Russian military threat in Europe is challenged, it is typically suggested that if the West allows Russia to ‘win’ in Ukraine then in the aftermath of such a victory Russia will turn its attention to the West. Why Russia would do that is unclear given the fact that even without any increases in defence expenditure NATO members collectively possess........

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