A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators say they expect Canada and the U.S. to work collaboratively on shared issues of defence and the border, but suggested Ottawa’s policies on military spending need to change to speed up progress.
Speaking to Mercedes Stephenson from the Halifax International Security Forum in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block, Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire downplayed concerns that incoming president-elect Donald Trump will penalize Canada on things like trade if it doesn’t step up on defence spending.
But Risch suggested Washington was growing impatient on Canada’s progress meeting NATO’s benchmark of spending at least two per cent on defence, which Ottawa says it plans to meet eight years from now.
“If Donald Trump was sitting right here, you’d get a big guffaw out of him on 2032, because that’s a long ways from what we’re dealing …