Canada to spend big on defence and rely less on US, after Washington ‘shrugs off burden of leadership’

Canada will spend billions of dollars on defence and rely less on the United States, which has “shrugged off the burden of world leadership,” its foreign minister said Tuesday, signaling a major foreign policy shift.

“International relationships that had seemed immutable for 70 years are being called into question,” Chrystia Freeland told lawmakers in a speech outlining how Canada will shoulder a bigger role on the world stage.

As a consequence, Canada will have to develop its own “hard power” military capabilities to support diplomatic and development efforts abroad.

“This is about us standing on our own two feet, having a foreign policy that expresses as an independent and sovereign country what we need to achieve in the world to guarantee our safety and security and also to promote our values,” the top diplomat told reporters following her remarks.

Details are expected in a defence policy announcement Wednesday.

Ottawa has been among Washington’s closest allies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sought to coax Trump to embrace his liberal worldview, but with little success.

Freeland stressed Canada’s disappointment with the US decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.