United States President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House is renewing pressure on Canada to focus more on defense spending and border security.

In February, Trump warned NATO members that if they didn’t pay their fair share — spending 2 per cent of their country’s GDP on their military — they should not assume the U.S. would leap to their defence. 

In July, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada would meet the 2 per cent target, but only in 2032.

The Liberals have invested billions to update the Canadian Armed Forces, but decades of underinvestment have led to serious capability gaps.

This week, on “It’s Political,” we take a look at the state of the Canadian Armed Forces and ask how prepared Canada is for the threats we face.

First, we’ll hear from experts: Canadian Army Commander Lieutenant-General Michael Wright, Carleton University Associate Professor Philippe Lagassé, University of Calgary Associate Professor Rob Huebert, Observatory on Politics and Security in the Arctic Director Mathieu Landriault, Canadian Global Affairs Institute President David Perry, Royal Military College of Canada Professor Jane Boulden, and retired Royal Canadian Air Force brigadier general Kevin Whale.

Then, Althia will sit down with National Defence Minister Bill Blair. 

Some of the clips this week were sourced from the House of Commons, CPAC, the Halifax International Security Forum, the CBC, CTV, Global, NBC and ABC. 

This episode of “It’s Political” was produced by Althia Raj and Kevin Sexton.  Matt Hearn is our sound engineer. Our theme music is by Isaac Joel.