As we move closer to the U.S. election, CTVNews.ca will be examining the relationship between Canada and the U.S. in a series of features.
Canada has long faced criticism from the U.S. and other allies for failing to meet NATO’s defence spending target, which directs members of the security alliance to contribute at least two per cent of their GDP to defence.
After a torrent of criticism from its NATO allies, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did say this week that Canada would reach that benchmark – but it won’t happen until 2032 and he offered few details as to the timeline.
And while Republicans and Democrats alike have long complained about Canada’s sluggish military spending, experts say Canada is more likely to suffer consequences under a second Trump presidency, which could also end U.S. support for Ukraine.
Aaron Ettinger is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University who specializes in U.S. foreign policy. He says while American presidents have complained about Canada’s defence spending since the end of the Second World War, Canadian leaders have long tried to “stickhandle” around the criticisms.
“Biden might be more forgiving as long as Canada continues to contribute to multilateral operations in eastern Europe, including supplying war materiel to Ukraine,” Ettinger told CTVNews.ca.
“Trump would return to his pattern of upbraiding Canada for not spending enough on defence, which would put a Canadian prime minister in a difficult position: spending more on defence comes with no political benefits in Canada and whatever Canada spends won’t be enough for Trump.”
Whether Trudeau’s promise to reach the two per cent benchmark in eight years will change the U.S.’s view of Canada – in Biden’s eyes, or Trump’s if he were to win the election in November – is still up in the air.
Canada spent an estimated 1.38 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2023, according to NATO data, putting it in 25th place out of 30 members.
Where Trump stands
During a February 2024 rally, former U.S. president Donald Trump recounted telling a NATO leader that he would let Russia have its way with members that don’t reach the military alliance’s minimum defence spending target.
“No, I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,” Trump told cheering supporters. “You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 24, 2024 (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)
Trump has reportedly considered withdrawing the U.S. from NATO and has also purportedly floated the idea of creating a two-tiered military alliance, where countries that fail to meet the spending target are not fully protected.
“If you’re going to be part of an alliance, contribute to the alliance, be part of the alliance,” Trump national security advisor and retired lieutenant- general Keith Kellogg told Reuters in February. “If President Trump is re-elected, once the election is done, I would give everyone what we call a warning order.”
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton previously said Trump “saw absolutely no point to NATO” and “would try to get out” if re-elected. Trump reportedly even considered doing so while president in 2018.
“The great fear is that Trump would use allied free-riding as a pretext to withdraw from major multilateral security initiatives,” Ettinger told CTVNews.ca. “This includes NATO, but it could also mean bilateral security arrangements with Canada.”
According to Ettinger, a Trump victory could also affect western support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“If Trump is elected, there’s a good chance that the U.S. would stop sending money to Ukraine. If that happens, every other country would likely follow suit,” Ettinger said. “This is exactly what happened in Afghanistan: the U.S. withdrew and every other western country that was part of NATO operations followed. We saw how that turned out.”
Where Biden stands
The message on Canada’s defence spending has been similar – but softer – from U.S. President Joe Biden’s team.
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve moved from three countries meeting that target to 18, with more to come, and those that aren’t meeting it right now have a plan to get there, except for Canada,” Julianne Smith, the current U.S. ambassador to NATO, told CTV Question Period earlier this year.
Ettinger also expects western support for Ukraine to continue under Biden.
“Should Biden be elected, the U.S. support program would likely continue on its current slowly escalating course,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, welcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the NATO Summit on July 10, 2024, in Washington (AP Photo /Evan Vucci)
Canada’s defence spending
While only 11 countries hit the NATO defence spending target in 2023 – led by Poland, the U.S. and Greece – more than 20 are expected to fulfil the goal this year, excluding Canada.
While the Liberal government did not provide details as to how it would reach the two per cent mark by 2032 aside from investments in new defence capabilities, including submarines, it did announce billions in new military spending that will see Canada reach 1.76 per cent by 2029.
In April 2023, the Washington Post reported on a leaked Pentagon document that alleged Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada will never meet the two per cent target.
“We recognize there’s more to do and we will be there to do it,” Trudeau said after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently urged him to increase defence spending.
As he committed Canada to reaching two per cent by 2032, Trudeau also defended Canada’s defence contributions and seemed to take a swipe at the benchmark set by NATO.
“We continually step up and punch above our weight, something that isn’t always reflected in the crass mathematical calculation that certain people turn to very quickly,” Trudeau said at the annual NATO summit in Washington on Thursday. “Which is why we’ve always questioned the two per cent as the be-all, end-all of evaluating contributions to NATO.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
