Increased defence spending will enhance Canada’s competitiveness, writes Peter Watson.
Increasing our defence spending will have significant benefits to the Canadian economy and our international competitiveness.
There are two aspects to defence spending. The first is to remain strong to protect ourselves against potential enemies. Remaining strong includes living up to our obligation with other NATO countries we partner with in providing defence.
The interesting part of our increased defence spending is that it is not all directed towards traditional defence items like fighter aircraft and personnel. Money will be spent on infrastructure and technology.
We need to be competitive because keeping up with world advancements helps us deliver a high standard of living to our citizens. If we fall behind the progress of other countries we will suffer.
Modernizing our country is good for defence and it is also good for the Canadian economy. Also, by doing our defence spending fair share within our NATO agreement we have the opportunity to forge stronger trading ties with our European allies.
The United States has turned inward and that has left a vacuum for new enhanced relationships. Canada has the potential to develop closer relationships with European countries and there seems to be an appetite from Europe to move in that direction.
The same is true with Asia and other parts of the world. Countries are looking for new trading partners. Collective international synergistic activities can enhance a country’s success. We are stronger when working together.
My support for increased defence infrastructure is in direct conflict with my opinion about government overspending. There is a difference between overspending to run our country and investing in Canada to make it more competitive.
Increasing our defence spending is good for us all.
Peter Watson, of Watson Investments MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI offers a weekly financial planning column, Dollars & Sense. He can be contacted through www.watsoninvestments.com
