Latest news with #defenceSpending
Globe and Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney, and the return of the progressive conservative
As Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a massive and immediate boost to defence spending earlier this month, he talked about the importance of using those new funds prudently. 'Every taxpayer dollar is precious,' he said in passing, later adding that his government would not be looking for new sources of revenue to pay for the defence buildup. 'We just cut taxes, we're not raising taxes.' It's easy enough to imagine a Conservative prime minister uttering similar sentiments – much easier than, say, envisioning former prime minister Justin Trudeau waxing on about the need to pinch pennies in the federal budget and making a no-new-taxes pledge. That Mr. Carney was going to drag the Liberal Party back to the centre after years of an NDP-lite government under Mr. Trudeau was to be expected. Two months after the election, the extent of that metamorphosis is becoming clearer – and it is remarkable. Part of that change is atmospheric. There are no more breathless lectures from Mr. Trudeau; they have been, mercifully, replaced by Mr. Carney's boardroom staccato. Unlike his predecessor, the current Prime Minister boasts of being 'laser-focused' on economic growth. And Canadians, happily, have no idea what kind of socks Mr. Carney likes to wear. But more than mannerisms have changed. Since April, the Prime Minister has cut personal income taxes, boosted defence spending dramatically, pledged to cut the cost of the federal bureaucracy, tightened immigration rules, eliminated federal barriers to internal trade, created a framework for breaking the stasis on big national projects and signaled that he will dismiss underperforming top bureaucrats. That's an agenda that Brian Mulroney could have endorsed. In fact, it overlaps a good deal with the actual governing record of his Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Carney is a Liberal but, in the early going, he looks to be governing much like a Red Tory – a progressive kind of conservative. Mr. Carney's agenda is one that the Liberals, in their Trudeau-era incarnation, would have most likely loudly denounced. Indeed, some left-leaning Liberals in the current caucus, including former cabinet minister and leadership contender Karina Gould, have already voiced their disquiet on legislation to speed up megaproject approvals. House approves Bill C-5 to fast-track projects, Carney pledges summer consultations with Indigenous leaders That could portend problems not that far down the road for the Liberal coalition that gave Mr. Carney his minority government. The Liberals corralled the progressive vote, with support for the NDP and Greens plummeting from the 2021 campaign. Will those voters stick with the Liberals if Mr. Carney continues his rightward sidestep? And will Mr. Carney stick with his agenda if his progressive supporters bolt? Another (large) caveat is how Mr. Carney's agenda adds up in the fall budget. Broad statements on finding efficiencies in the public service are enough for now. Canadians will see in a couple of months whether the blue-tinged Liberals will actually reduce the bloated head count of civil servants. Similarly, it's encouraging that Michael Sabia, two days before he was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council, mused about the 'pancake' of regulations that were stifling economic growth. But what will he and Mr. Carney do to reduce the height of the pancake stack? Biggest of all, the swirl of mist surrounding Mr. Carney's fiscal plans will be necessarily dissipated once that budget is tabled. How will the defence buildup be paid for? Will the deficit fall or rise from the groaningly high levels that Mr. Trudeau bequeathed to his successor? The answers found in the budget will determine if Mr. Carney has truly broken from the fiscal recklessness of the Trudeau Liberals. Longer term, there is the open question of how aggressively the Carney Liberals will push badly overdue structural reforms of the economy. Broad tax reform, lowering of foreign ownership barriers, radically paring business subsidies and reducing the regulatory burden: all of those changes are needed to reinvigorate Canada's economy. At the moment, Mr. Carney doesn't look to be abandoning the dirigiste propensities of the Trudeau Liberals, who were unable to see that millions of minds in the private sector might do a better job than a government department. In less than four months, Mr. Carney has reinvented and reinvigorated the Liberal brand, delivering a progressive feel to conservative governance. Canadians will find out soon enough if that is a mere marketing exercise.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Orchestrated grovel': critics react to Europe's attempts to tame Donald Trump
History may record this week as the one in which Donald Trump came to Europe to discuss defence spending. Diplomats may remember it as the week in which the art of obsequiousness reached new highs and the sycophants plunged new lows. All in the name of taming the president. It seems to have worked. After Trump landed to Washington from this week's Nato summit in The Hague, the White House posted a video that made clear how his team felt the trip had gone. The summit had concluded on Wednesday with a joint press conference in which Nato's secretary general, Mark Rutte, after showering the US president with compliments over his actions on Iran, bizarrely referred to him as 'daddy'. Rutte was now being widely derided for the summit's 'orchestrated grovel' and attempting to row back on his choice of language. In Washington, however, Team Trump were enjoying themselves. 'Daddy's home!' trilled the video, which mixed clips of Trump's handshakes with world leaders with footage of crowds awaiting his motorcade, soundtracked by a 2010 song by Usher: 'And I know you've been waiting for this loving all day …' The tone of Rutte's public bootlicking had been muted compared with the text messages he had sent to 'dear Donald' before the summit – 'Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary … you will achieve something NO president in decades could get done' – and which the president had immediately leaked. 'I think he likes me,' smirked Trump later, while his cabinet giggled behind him. Ass-kissing, arse-licking, brown-nosing, sucking up – there is a reason metaphors for obsequiousness so often involve body fluids and the backside, because the act of sycophancy demeans both the arselicker and the arselickee. What is more cringeworthy, after all – the clips of Trump's cabinet members taking turns to parrot praise of his leadership and vision, or the fact that his fragile ego demands lavish compliments before he can get down to work? No doubt all the president's yes-men believe that lavishing him with praise can lead to lavish rewards. Take the former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who in 2020 presented him with a 'bookshelf-sized' bronze model of Mount Rushmore, portraying Trump's face next to those of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Noem is now the secretary of homeland security. Stephen Miller, who called Trump 'the most stylish president in our lifetime', is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy. To some observers, this is just how Trump works, at home and abroad, and world leaders like Rutte who engage in flattery and 'strategic self-emasculation' are just being smart. 'A useful way to think about President Trump and his team is not in terms of a conventional American administration, but rather as a court,' says Sam Edwards, a reader in modern political history at Loughborough University. Understood in those terms, he argues, performative upsucking is all. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion He points to Keir Starmer's first visit to Trump's Oval Office, when the UK prime minister theatrically brandished a letter from King Charles inviting Trump to a second state visit, saying, 'This is really special, this is unprecedented.' In this sense, Edwards argues, Rutte's conduct 'looks like debasement, like he's conducted himself with weakness,' says Edwards. 'But in the longer term, he gets the Nato partners to sign up to 5% expenditure on defence, which is something he wants as much as Trump wants. I guess that's the strategic calculation that Rutte has made. I might come in for criticism, but further down the line, do I get what I want? Yes.' That view is not universal, however. 'Mr Rutte, he's trying to embarrass you, sir,' Trump's former director of communications Anthony Scaramucci said earlier this week. 'He's literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you.' David H Dunn, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, agrees that licking Trump's boots doesn't earn his favour but his disdain. His flattering cabinet were selected not because the president admires them, says Dunn, but because their obsequiousness shows their weakness. He thinks Rutte, too, has miscalculated. 'There is a lot of evidence from the first term that Trump doesn't necessarily respond to flattery,' Dunn says. 'It sends a signal that this is not an alliance of equals. This is not the America of old, whereby there was a coming together of countries of shared values and shared interests. What it looks like is fealty to the king.'
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
Higher defence spending will weaken Europe finances without counter steps, says Scope Ratings
LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Higher defence spending will weaken European governments' credit profiles unless they are able to cut spending elsewhere or increase their revenues, ratings agency Scope said on Friday. NATO allies agreed on Wednesday to raise their collective spending goal to 5% of output over the next decade, citing the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen civil and military resilience. "Higher defence expenditure will lead to higher borrowings and deteriorating debt-to-GDP trajectories in most EU countries, and thus weaker sovereign credit profiles, unless governments reduce spending elsewhere or increase revenues," Scope analysts said in a note due to be published on Monday. The additional spending burden will significantly raise pressure on countries such as France, Belgium and Italy that already face disciplinary measures from the European Union due to their high budget deficits, Scope added. Such fiscal constraints means defence spending could shift towards the European level, the analysts said. "Centralising EU security and defence financing could provide more sustainable and coordinated financing across member states while also creating economies of scale in defence and security procurement," they added. The EU is already creating an up-to 150-billion-euro ($175.85 billion) fund financed by joint borrowing for defence, but economists have said more common funding will likely be necessary. ($1 = 0.8530 euros)
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Orchestrated grovel': critics react to Europe's attempts to tame Donald Trump
History may record this week as the one in which Donald Trump came to Europe to discuss defence spending. Diplomats may remember it as the week in which the art of obsequiousness reached new highs and the sycophants plunged new lows. All in the name of taming the president. It seems to have worked. After Trump landed to Washington from this week's Nato summit in The Hague, the White House posted a video that made clear how his team felt the trip had gone. The summit had concluded on Wednesday with a joint press conference in which Nato's secretary general, Mark Rutte, after showering the US president with compliments over Iran, bizarrely referred to him as 'daddy'. Rutte was now being widely derided for the summit's 'orchestrated grovel' and attempting to row back on his choice of language. In Washington, however, Team Trump were enjoying themselves. 'Daddy's home!' trilled the video, which mixed clips of Trump's handshakes with world leaders with footage of crowds awaiting his motorcade, soundtracked by a 2010 song by Usher: 'And I know you've been waiting for this loving all day …' The tone of Rutte's public bootlicking had been muted compared with the text messages he had sent to 'dear Donald' ahead of the summit – 'Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary … you will achieve something NO president in decades could get done' – and which the president had immediately leaked. 'I think he likes me,' smirked Trump later, while his cabinet giggled behind him. Ass-kissing, arse-licking, brown-nosing, sucking up – there is a reason metaphors for obsequiousness so often involve bodily fluids and the backside, because the act of sycophancy demeans both the arselicker and the arselickee. What is more cringeworthy, after all – the clips of Trump's cabinet members taking turns to parrot praise of his leadership and vision, or the fact that his fragile ego demands lavish compliments before he can get down to work? No doubt all the president's yes-men believe that lavishing him with praise can lead to lavish rewards. Take former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who in 2020 presented him with a 'bookshelf-sized' bronze model of Mount Rushmore, portraying Trump's face next to those of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Noem is now the secretary of homeland security. Stephen Miller, who called Trump 'the most stylish president in our lifetime', is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy. To some observers, this is just how Trump works, at home and abroad, and world leaders like Rutte who engage in flattery and 'strategic self-emasculation' are just being smart. 'A useful way to think about President Trump and his team is not in terms of a conventional American administration, but rather as a court,' says Sam Edwards, reader in modern political history at Loughborough University. Understood in those terms, he argues, performative upsucking is all. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion He points to Keir Starmer's first visit to Trump's Oval Office, when the UK prime minister theatrically brandished a letter from King Charles inviting Trump to a second state visit, saying, 'This is really special, this is unprecedented.' In this sense, Edwards argues, Rutte's conduct 'looks like debasement, like he's conducted himself with weakness,' says Edwards. 'But in the longer term, he gets the Nato partners to sign up to 5% expenditure on defence, which is something he wants as much as Trump wants. I guess that's the strategic calculation that Rutte has made. I might come in for criticism, but further down the line, do I get what I want? Yes.' That view is not universal, however. 'Mr Rutte, he's trying to embarrass you, sir,' Trump's former director of communications Anthony Scaramucci said earlier this week. 'He's literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you.' David H Dunn, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, agrees that licking Trump's boots doesn't earn his favour but his disdain. His flattering cabinet were selected not because the president admires them, says Dunn, but because their obsequiousness shows their weakness. He thinks Rutte, too, has miscalculated. 'There is a lot of evidence from the first term that Trump doesn't necessarily respond to flattery,' Dunn says. 'It sends a signal that this is not an alliance of equals. This is not the America of old, whereby there was a coming together of countries of shared values and shared interests. What it looks like is fealty to the king.'
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘Daddy' Trump meets Nato, while defence, trade and Gaza dominate EU summit
Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Jack Horgan-Jones to look back on the week in politics: US President Donald Trump was the main attraction at a landmark Nato summit on Wednesday with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte calling him 'Daddy' during their press conference. Trump got what he came for with Nato member states agreeing to an increase of 5 per cent of GDP in defence spending . Over at the EU leaders summit on Thursday, defence spending was also high on the agenda with Ireland backing the EU's €150bn defence plan . The war in Gaza was highlighted too with Taoiseach Micheál Martin unable to comprehend how Europe doesn't seem capable of putting any pressure on Israel to stop it. And with Trump's tariffs pause set to end on July 9th, Ireland and other EU countries will be forgiven for looking at India and China as greater trading partners. Do policy interventions like reviewing RPZs compensate for the delayed release of the Government's housing plan ? The document won't be published until after the summer. Presidential candidates are still pretty thin on the ground with Fine Gael's Seán Kelly saying he 'could do a lot' as president but stopped short of declaring he actually will enter the race. Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week: The endurance test that Irish concert-goers have to go through is worth it, Democratic mayoral primary Zohran Mamdani shocks as New York swelters, and Jaws and its Irish connection .
