Security to be top of mind during Joe Biden’s trip to Canada

National security has been top of mind ever since last month's flurry of floating objects exposed North America's aging binational defence system.

Joe Biden‘s last official visit to Canada came with a palpable sense of foreboding.

Change was in the air. Authoritarian leaders in Syria and Turkey were consolidating power. Britain had voted to leave the European Union. And Donald Trump was waiting in the wings to take over the White House.

“Genuine leaders” were in short supply, and Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be called upon to step up, said the U.S. vice-president, who was on a farewell tour of sorts in the waning days of the Obama administration.

Six years later, Biden is coming back _ this time as president _ and the world is very different. His message likely won’t be.

“There’s a seriousness to this moment in America,” said Goldy Hyder, the president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, who spent much of last week meeting with U.S. officials in D.C.

Chinese spy balloons are drifting through North American airspace. Russian MiG fighter jets are downing U.S. drones as the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on. North Korea is testing long-range ballistic missiles.

And Xi Jinping is sitting down Monday with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a meeting that will underscore the geopolitical context in which the U.S. sees the world _ and amp up the pressure on Canada to remain a willing and reliable partner, not only in Ukraine but elsewhere as well.

“It shines a much brighter light on security in all its forms: national security, economic security, energy security, cybersecurity _ all of these things come home to roost,” Hyder said of that meeting.