Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre plans to double the country’s northern military presence by building a fully-fledged Arctic military base and purchasing two more icebreakers, all while cutting foreign aid to pay for Canada’s northern defence.
Poilievre announced “the first part” of his plan to reduce the federal debt and build up Canada’s Arctic defences in Iqaluit, NU, Monday morning.
He vowed to double the size of the Canadian Rangers from 2000 to 4000 rangers, acquire two additional polar icebreakers and commit to building two other heavy icebreakers, already in development under the Liberal government, by 2029. The Liberals have yet to provide a definitive deadline for the project.
“Conservatives will deliver all of these things faster than the current liberal plan by cutting red tape and delays, if we are to be a sovereign, self-reliant nation, we must take control of our north, secure all of our borders, and stand on our own two feet,” Poilievre said. “We cannot count on the Americans to do it for us anymore. This is a reality. This is the wake-up call.”
Poilievre also vowed to build Canada’s first permanent Arctic military base since the Cold War in Iqaluit, promising jobs for Northern Canadians in both military roles and the trades.
“Canada’s Arctic is under threat,” he said. “After nine years of Liberal incompetence and disdain, our military is weakened, and our allies no longer respect us. Our safety, territory and trade with the US requires we take back control of our north”
As it stands, Canada does not have an operating Arctic base. The Nanisivik Naval Facility is currently still in development and expected to go into operation this year. As a naval station, the facility is expected to only be used by Arctic patrol vessels for refuelling purposes and not extensive military operations. Russia currently has more Arctic military bases than all of NATO combined.
He noted several instances of Russia and China encroaching and threatening Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty.
“Hostile powers want our resources, our shipping routes and to be in striking distance of our continent,” Poilievre said. “Let me be clear, the Canadian Arctic belongs to Canadians, and Canadians will take back control of their Arctic waters, Arctic skies and Arctic land.”
The Department of National Defence noted in an “Our North Strong and Free” report last year that Russia“possesses a robust Arctic naval presence with submarines, surface combatants and an icebreaker fleet much larger than those of other Arctic powers.”
According to the American Security Project, Russia has also reopened Soviet military bases.
“Canada still doesn’t have a permanent military base in the Arctic, while the same time, Russia has reopened Soviet bases and expanded its Navy’s Northern Fleet,” Poilievre said. “Over the last few decades, they’ve also developed new hypersonic missiles designed to evade NATO’s defences. Why do you think they want those for?”
He said the base will host a full Royal Canadian Armed Forces wing to launch and land new F-35 fighter jets to “deter, intercept and destroy threats” and will be used to land Poseidon P-8 aircraft to carry out search and rescue, antisubmarine warfare and intelligence operations.
He also cited DND concerns over Chinese research vessels probing near Canada’s Arctic in the Bering Strait off of Alaska last summer. In 2022, the former Liberal Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand, told reporters that she was “fully aware” of other incidents of Chinese monitoring buoys in the Arctic.
Poilievre vowed to pay for it all by cutting from Canada’s large “foreign aid” and soft power influence funding around the world.
“One hundred per cent of the cost of the base will come out of our foreign aid budget,” he said. “In fact, today’s announcement will actually reduce the deficit because I plan to cut foreign aid more than the full cost of the announcement that I’ve made today.”
He pledged that the base would be “up and running within two years” of becoming Prime Minister.
“All of these improvements will be funded by dramatically cutting foreign aid, most of which or al lot of which goes to dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracies,” Poilievre said. “We’ve got enough problems at home. We’ve got our own backyard to protect we can’t be sending billions of dollars to other places, often, and much of it is wasted and stolen and swallowed up by bureaucracies that act against our interest.”
Many Canadians online, including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, have advocated for reducing Global Affairs Canada’s budget for years. A recent True North report found that GAC gave the U.K.’s BBC over half a million tax dollars for African DEI projects.
On top of a $3.3 million bar tab, the federal foreign aid agency racked up between Jan. 2019 and May 2024, GAC has spent on several projects the CTF has raised the alarm about. Some of these included $12,000 for seniors in Asia to share sex stories with a live studio audience and millions in spending on vacant land in Africa and properties in Afghanistan, which were abandoned to the Taliban.
“Canadians will decide. With Trudeau-Carney Liberals, more and more billions of dollars will go to global and globalist organizations while our people at home are starving and our military is unable to defend our territory,” Poilievre said. “Or they can bring it home with common sense conservatives who will make sure our money serves our people, our sovereignty, and our interests. “