Poilievre won't commit to NATO 2% target, says he's 'inheriting a dumpster fire' budget balance

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he won't commit to meeting the two per cent NATO defence spending target if he becomes prime minister.

"I make promises that I can keep and right now we are, our country, is broke," Poilievre said. "I'm inheriting a dumpster fire when it comes to the budget.

"Every time I make a financial commitment, I'm going to make sure I've pulled out my calculator and done all the math. People are sick and tired of politicians just announcing that they're going to spend money without figuring out how they're going to pay for it."

Poilievre made the remarks in Montréal after being asked why he hasn't yet committed to the NATO benchmark of spending two per cent of annual GDP on the military.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to reach the target by 2032 at the NATO summit in Washington D.C. on Thursday after facing criticism for lagging behind alliance partners.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with Trudeau in Washington on Tuesday. After the meeting, McConnell published a post on X: "It's time for our northern ally to invest seriously in the hard power required to help preserve prosperity and security across NATO."

In May, a group of U.S. senators from both major parties sent a letter to Trudeau urging the Liberal government to boost defence spending to the NATO target.

"It's clear now Justin Trudeau is seen as an absolute joke on the world stage," Poilievre said in reaction to allies' criticism of Canada's defence spending.

Poilievre said Thursday his plan to boost defence spending hinges on cutting funding to "dictators, terrorists and multinational bureaucracies."

"I will crack down on corruption, back office bureaucracy and procurement bungles, and I will use the savings from that to reinforce our military," he said.

Poilievre said that a future Conservative government would "buy equipment based on best value, to make our money go further" and would replace the military's "woke culture with a warrior culture" to boost recruitment. 

"When the previous Conservative government was in office, we weren't hearing these criticisms. Why? Because we were delivering. It wasn't because we were spending more, it's because we were delivering more," he said. 

In fact, between 2012 and 2015 the Conservatives faced substantial criticism for cutting the Department of National Defence budget by $2.7 billion annually in order to reach a balanced budget.

And after the Afghan war, the government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper cancelled or delayed decisions on several high-profile defence programs.