The Canada-U.S. Defence Relationship: What Next?

Posted: February 10th, 2017

By Ferry de Kerckhove

Ferry de Kerckhove entered the Canadian Foreign Service in 1973. His postings included Iran, NATO and Moscow. At Headquarters he worked on European Affairs, in Policy Planning and on economic relations with developing countries. In 1995 he became Associate Chief Air Negotiator, then Deputy Head of the Policy Branch and Director-General, Federal-Provincial Relations. He was High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2008 to 2001 and Ambassador to Indonesia from 2001 to 2003. In 2004, he became Director General, International Organizations and in 2006 he was also the Personal representative of the Prime Minister for Francophonie. His last posting was ambassador to Egypt in 2008-2011. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2011. He is a Senior Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, and a member of the Board of the Conference of Defense Associations Institute.

When President Barack Obama came to Ottawa as part of the “bromance” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he said that the world needed “more Canada,” but he also pointed out that Canada should contribute its fair share on defence. This was a significant call to action from Canada’s most important ally and defence partner. Canadians resent being told that they are a free-rider on defence spending. Comparisons on defence spending often ignore qualitative differences or things like purchasing parities and currencies distortions. Yet, although our forces are second to none when engaged in an expeditionary operation, our paltry .95 percent of GDP spending on defence barely meets the Nils Orvik criteria of “defence against help” – that is preventing the U.S. from taking over our defence completely.

Still, Canada’s defence relations with the U.S. are solidly grounded in joint training exercises, personnel exchanges, strategic policy discussions, and operational cooperation. The consultative architecture, going back to the 1940’s, is rock solid and translates into a combined defence plan within a tri-command framework. Canada is also a key partner in U.S. efforts to prevent and reduce illicit trafficking through detection, monitoring, and tracking drug traffickers. Maritime interoperability between Canadian, U.S., and Mexican forces in response to regional maritime threats has gained from the creation of North American Maritime Security Initiative.

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