It looks like The Eye of Sauron is turning its gaze north again…
The story this week was that the U.S. Administration was putting a “pause” on the longstanding joint Board of Defence. The U.S. undersecretary of defence said Monday that the United States is pausing a long-standing military board, claiming “Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments.” See Canada military board: U.S. hitting pause
(Bob Rae has a great Substack story with some of the history to this Board that is a good memory jogger.)
And more details are emerging. According to Global News…
Pentagon gave Canada classified paper detailing defence priorities
May 23, 2026
A high-ranking U.S. defence official says the Pentagon gave Ottawa a classified paper laying out priorities for a collective North American defence pact with Canada, but that Ottawa did not deliver a “credible” response.
That lack of response is just one of several irritants the senior Pentagon official said is creating a rift in North American defence co-operation. Canada’s delayed decision around the procurement of F-35 fighter jets was also cited as a source of frustration.
…
McGuinty’s communications director Alice Hansen said Canada has made “historic investments in continental defence, Arctic security and military readiness.”
Canada spent $63.4 billion on national defence in 2025, meeting its NATO commitment to spend two per cent of gross domestic product on defence for the first time.
In an email, Hansen laid out a list of defence investments and said Canada would spend more than $82 billion over five years in Canadian Armed Forces capabilities.
…
Jamie Tronnes of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, a project of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the revelation about the classified document is “a prime example of how Canada and the United States continue to fail to communicate.”More on CanadaMore videos
“A classified wish list is seen by Canada as a request, but it is seen by the Pentagon as an order,” Tronnes said in an email to The Canadian Press Friday.
See full Global News story here.
We have been laggards in the past when it has come to defence spending. But the Canadian government has now officially met NATOs 2% threshold and has set out a plan for significant new expenditure.
It is not just a coincidence that we are edging towards the summer deadline for CUSMA Review. This U.S. action feels like the start of the official “softening up” phase of the pressure we will surely feel on all kinds of fronts as we again come into the sights south of the border.
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