OTTAWA — Liberal leadership candidates spent Thursday attempting to one-up each other over how quickly they'd meet NATO's defence spending target.
Both Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould vowed to bring Canada's military spending up to the equivalent of two per cent of national GDP by 2027, while Frank Baylis committed to reaching that target by 2030 — a pitch he made in a National Post op-ed in July.
To get there, they all promised changes to Canadian Armed Forces salaries.
Freeland was the most specific — she's pledged a 50 per cent hike in wages for regular force members and better benefits — while Gould said she also would increase salaries.
Baylis was less committal, proposing to look at "how we pay them, how we give them pensions."
“Our CAF members are there for us in our time of greatest need," Gould said at a campaign event in Toronto.
"The world is increasingly volatile and dangerous. We must quickly scale up to defend our sovereignty, meet our international commitments, and support the brave men and women who serve in uniform," Freeland said in a campaign email statement.
Gould also said she would appoint a "procurement czar" to speed up backlogged military purchasing, while Freeland said she'd exempt defence procurement from Canadian International Trade Tribunal oversight.
"It's not about just spending money, but it's about spending it intelligently," Baylis said at a press conference on Parliament Hill.
"So if you do procurement intelligently, we can use it to reinvest in our own universities, in our own industries. We can make great jobs with it."
The pledges came just a day after rival candidate Mark Carney promised to meet NATO's target for allies' defence spending by the end of the decade. He did not provide a plan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to reach the spending benchmark by 2032.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2025.
Kyle Duggan and Nick Murray, The Canadian Press