CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Good morning.

It is a pleasure to be at the Munk School where faculty, students, and graduates have helped shape Canada’s domestic policies and geopolitical strategies for over two decades.

Your insights have never been in more demand than at this hinge moment in history.

Threats from a more dangerous and divided world are unravelling the rules-based international order – an order fused by the settlements at the ends of the Second World War and the Cold War – an order on which Canada has relied for longer than most of our lifetimes.

While the consequences are profound, we have agency in determining what comes next.

Canada can work toward new international partnerships that are more secure, prosperous, just, and free.

We can pursue deeper alliances with stable democracies who share our interests, values, principles, and history.

And we can help create a new era of integration between like-minded partners that maximizes mutual support over mutual dependency – a new system of co-operation that promotes greater resilience, rather than merely greater efficiency.

We can aspire to such a world, but aspiration without effort is just empty rhetoric.

If we want a better world, we will have to make difficult choices and work harder than we have had to in decades.

Government must start by fulfilling its most fundamental role: defending Canadians.

The primary focus of my remarks will be the nature and scale of what that will require, but let me first stress that there can be no true security without economic prosperity.

That’s one of many reasons why so much of the energy of Canada’s new government is dedicated to transforming our economy to become the strongest in the G7.

Getting there will require doubling the rate of home building, creating one Canadian economy out of 13, realizing our full potential as an energy superpower, pursuing a host of nation-building projects, and diversifying our international commercial relationships with reliable partners.

None of these goals will come easily or quickly. All will require ambition, collaboration, and, on occasion, sacrifice.

In a darker, more competitive world, Canadian leadership will be defined not just by the strength of our values, but also by the value of our strength.

A more confident, united, and stronger Canada can help transform this age of disorder into an era of prosperity for all Canadians.

Simply put, if we want a more reliable world, we need a stronger Canada.

If Canada came of age at Vimy Ridge, we matured in the decades that followed D-Day.

Since the Second World War, Canada has affirmed its independence.

We have forged our own identity and new alliances.

Increasingly, we distanced ourselves from the United Kingdom and grew closer to the United States.

We remained alongside the American people throughout the Cold War and during the decades that followed. And while the United States played a predominant role on the global stage, today, that predominance is a thing of the past.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States became the global hegemon.

Its gravitational pull, always strong, became virtually irresistible, and made the U.S. our closest ally and dominant trading partner.

Now the United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony, charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contributions to our collective security.

In parallel, the world’s trade routes, allegiances, energy systems, and even intelligence itself are being rewired.

Rising great powers are now in strategic competition with America. A new imperialism threatens.

Middle powers compete for interests and attention, knowing that if they are not at the table, they will be on the menu.

Indeed, the threats that Canada faces are multiplying.

Hostile powers, including foreign governments and non-state actors, are transcending geography to threaten our sovereignty.

Terrorist entities have developed new capabilities and expanded their reach to challenge global security and put our communities at risk.

Cyberattacks from the other side of the world can undermine our governments, bankrupt our businesses, and paralyze our infrastructure.

In addition to their cybersecurity capabilities, the traditional military capabilities of countries like China and Russia are also growing.

Unfortunately, we can no longer depend on our geography to protect Canadians against those threats.

The long-held view that Canada’s geographic location will protect us is becoming increasingly archaic.

Threats which felt far away and remote are now immediate and acute. 

And as our climate changes and the polar ice recedes, Canada’s Arctic is becoming more accessible and vulnerable to commercial and military activities.

We have been jolted awake by new threats to our security and sovereignty – including from an emboldened Russia and an assertive China.

Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine shattered previous assumptions of European post-Cold War security, leading to a sharp reappraisal of the costs of collective responsibility, and underscoring how precious – and precarious – are international law, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and human rights.

Disregarding these principles would not only betray our values, but also imperil our nation.

When we stand up for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and of the West Bank and Gaza, we are also standing up for the territorial integrity of the Canadian Arctic.

Ten years ago, Canada’s defence spending fell to less than 1 per cent of our GDP.

It has since doubled in cash terms, but that is still not enough to face mounting risks.

The brave women and men who are protecting our sovereignty do not have the resources they need for a riskier world.

Our military infrastructure and equipment have aged, hindering our military readiness. Only one of our four submarines is seaworthy. Less than half of our maritime fleet and land vehicles are operational.

And we are too reliant on the United States.

For all those reasons, I am announcing today that Canada will achieve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) 2 per cent target this year – half a decade ahead of schedule.

We will further accelerate our investments in the years to come, consistent with meeting our new security imperatives.

We will start by changing the way we support and invest in our Armed Forces.

We will change the way we arm the men and women who serve.

So we can fight on new battlegrounds, in unfamiliar territory.

So we can defend every inch of our sovereign territory, from the seafloor to the Arctic to cyberspace.

So we can protect Canadians, our interests, and our Allies.

Canada’s new government will rebuild, reinvest, and rearm the Canadian Armed Forces with a strategy resting on four pillars.

Investing in the foundations of defence – the men and women who serve, and the equipment and the infrastructure they use; expanding and enhancing our military capabilities; strengthening Canada’s defence industry; and diversifying Canada’s defence partnerships.

I call on all parties in Parliament to support these critical investments in our security and sovereignty.

Our plan will help ensure that Canada is strong at home and reliable abroad.

We will ensure every dollar is invested wisely, including by prioritizing made-in-Canada manufacturing and supply chains.

We should no longer send three quarters of our defence capital spending to America.

We will invest in new submarines, aircraft, ships, armed vehicles, and artillery, as well as new radars, drones, and sensors to monitor the seafloor and the Arctic.

We will repair and maintain the ships, aircraft, and infrastructure that, for too long, we have allowed to decay.

We will invest in satellite technologies to detect and prevent threats, for Canada as well as our Allies.

We will ensure Canada’s North is protected, with a larger, sustained year-round Canadian Armed Forces presence on land, sea, and air.

We will expand the reach, security mandate, and abilities of the Canadian Coast Guard, and integrate it into our NATO defence capabilities – to better secure our sovereignty and expand maritime surveillance.

As part of our new strategic approach to defence and security, we will also establish BOREALIS, the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science.

BOREALIS will advance cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other frontier technologies essential to safeguarding Canadian sovereignty.

We will address the shortage of personnel in the Canadian Armed Forces by modernizing the recruitment process, by building new housing on our military bases, by improving access to health care and child care services.

We will be giving each member of our Armed Forces a well-deserved pay raise that will also help in the recruitment and retention of personnel.

As I speak, the Canadian Armed Forces are fighting forest fires to protect their fellow Canadians and their communities.

They defend our coastlines and our waters.

They patrol the Arctic and support our Allies on Russia’s borders.

They do so in difficult conditions and, too often, with equipment that is inadequate.

They deserve better, and they will have better.

We are actively seeking to strengthen transatlantic security, particularly by becoming a participant in ReArm Europe.

This will help diversify our military suppliers with reliable European partners and integrate the Canadian defence industry as full participants in €150 billion of Europe’s rearmament program.

To these ends, the Canada-European Union Summit later this month will be more important than ever.

Canada will arrive at this summit with a plan to lead, with new investments to build our strength in service of our values.

This will include our support for a new NATO Defence Investment Pledge, which will be negotiated at the NATO Summit in The Hague.

This Defence Investment Pledge encompasses both assets and infrastructure that support our defence goals.

Canada is confident that our economic strategy and our many strategic resources – from critical minerals to cyber – will make major contributions to NATO rearmament.

We will support tangible commitments from our Allies to provide NATO with the necessary resolve to deter aggression and protect against all adversaries in all domains.

Our goal is to protect Canadians, not to satisfy NATO accountants.

What will ensure our security, and that of all citizens of NATO member countries, is tangible progress, not a mathematical calculation.

That will be the approach advocated for by Canada, and the one we will be presenting to our NATO Allies later this month.

We will undertake this transformation of our military capabilities strategically, deliberately, and impactfully.

Canada’s National Defence will immediately design a new defence policy that reflects both today and tomorrow’s threats, informed by experts and the experience of Allies and partners – including Ukraine.

We are creating a new defence procurement agency that will be guided by a new defence industrial strategy, and overseen by our newly appointed Secretary of State for Defence Procurement.

The defence procurement agency will centralize decision making and move at pace to get our Armed Forces the equipment they need, when they need it.

We will ensure that Canadian workers and businesses benefit from the huge increase in defence procurement that will be required – using Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum, Canadian critical minerals, and Canadian cyber.

We will strengthen our industrial capabilities, give ourselves the tools we need to meet our defence requirements, and seize the opportunities that arise.

We will invest more in Canadian weaponry and munitions, as well as in those produced by a range of Allies.

It will be challenging to protect against growing and changing threats, while building a stronger Canadian economy, but these are imperatives in a more dangerous world.

And as His Majesty the King reminded us two weeks ago, our greatest challenges present immense opportunities.

To build the military we need, we can deploy and develop Canadian innovation, ingenuity, and industry.

The transformation of our military capabilities can help transform our economy.

Right now, National Defence already accounts for over 275,000 direct and indirect jobs, in over 3,000 communities, across every province and territory.

Our renewed commitment to defence will create tens of thousands more fulfilling, high-paying careers for Canadian workers.

It will create enormous opportunities for Canadian businesses in the defence sector, and across every link of supply chains. From the production of raw materials, including steel and aluminum, to the truckers and rail workers who ensure their transit, to those who transform these materials into equipment, weapons, ammunition, and vehicles.

It will drive innovation in sectors like artificial intelligence, quantum, and cyber.

It will safeguard Canada, as well as our interests and Allies abroad.

It will build Canada strong.

We will ensure our security in a world that has been profoundly transformed.

We will create good careers and prosperity across Canada.

And in doing so, we will also protect that prosperity, protect our quality of life, and protect our way of life.

Throughout Canada’s history, there have been turning points when the world’s fortunes were in the balance.

That was the case at the start of the Second World War just as it was at the end of the Cold War.

Each time, Canada chose to step up – to assert itself as a free, sovereign, and ambitious nation. To lead on the path of democracy and freedom.

We are once again at such a hinge moment.

It is time for Canada to chart its own path, to assert itself on the world stage.

It is time to defend our values, with those who share them.

It is time to share with the world a distinct approach and a distinct vision.

Now is the time to act with urgency, force, and determination.

As the world grows more dangerous, Canada will ensure our country is protected from coast to coast to coast, while creating higher-paying jobs across our great country.

Canada will lead – with values that the world respects, the resources the world wants, and an economy that leads the G7.

We will build a strong, secure, and sovereign future for all Canadians, and for all time.

Thank you.