THOMSON: Canada can't afford to fund Ukraine's war against Russia

Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) have faced ongoing criticism from the government benches for voting against Canada’s updated Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Ukraine. But voting against an FTA and wanting to put Canadians ahead of foreign interests does not equate to abandoning Ukraine — it’s disingenuous to say otherwise.The whole assertion the CPC and Pierre Poilievre do not support Ukraine is delusional. Yet, due to the left-leaning bias of our mainstream media, that talking point is doing the rounds of all the usual suspects, as gospel.For example, Andrew Coyne tweeted, “Never mind Poilievre: what are the other members of the Conservative front bench thinking? The ones who’ve always boasted of their support for Ukraine? Where are their voices now?”Well Mr. Coyne, do you mean the members of the CPC who just weeks ago made a motion to amend a report from the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development that would have recommended more weapons and munitions exports be made to Ukraine. Maybe you didn’t hear, but that CPC amendment was voted down by the Liberals. By simple extrapolation that must mean Prime Minister Trudeau and the Liberal Party do not support Ukraine. Right? Where were their voices then, Mr. Coyne?It’s absolute rubbish. Of course both parties support Ukraine. (Israel… now that’s a different matter.)But if unanimous consent for the FTA was important to demonstrate unwavering support for Ukraine, then government could have worked with the Conservatives to amend the language suitably. But that wasn’t the case, and as such, the CPC like every other party in the House of Commons, voted as they saw fit on legislation before the house.As a result Bill C-57, which underpins the new trade deal, passed with a vote of 205 to 109 and will now progress to committee for further evaluation.So, while the ongoing political drama is, as they say, a “nothing burger,” there are important questions surrounding the issue that need to be discussed by Canadians and their elected representatives. The most important is this: To what extent do we continue to support Ukraine and for how long?It will be two years this coming February that Russia invaded Ukraine (for the second time) and to date since February 2022, Canada has provided $9.7 billion in what the government calls “multi-faceted support.”That’s a shocking figure especially, when you put it against the cost of Canada’s commitment in Afghanistan.That war, which spanned more than thirteen years, cost taxpayers $18 billion in combat, reconstruction and aid expenditures. That works out to roughly $1.38 billion per year spent on Afghanistan. Yet, our support for Ukraine is costing is upwards of $4.85 billion per year.That’s a lot of capital for a country such as Canada, especially since it has been throwing money around like drunken sailors on shore leave for the past eight years.As it is, we pay more (according to the Fraser Institute) to service our debt — approximately $34.7 billion in fiscal year 2022/23 — than we spend on childcare benefits ($29.4 billion.) In fact, our gross debt is approaching 60% of our GDP.This is completely untenable. We can't keep doing it.So while Ukraine deserves our support, is it reasonable we keep piling the debt onto our taxpayers to support them? No, it’s not. There has to be a limit.That’s not to say that we can’t support Ukraine and give them the tools they need to beat Russians back inside their pre-2014 borders. We just have to be smarter with our money.Imagine the support we could provide to Ukraine with the $43.6 billion worth of federal and provincial funds earmarked over the next 10 years to support the construction of three EV battery plants in Canada. Plants, that will produce batteries for vehicles that a decreasing number of consumers want to buy as proven by scaled back EV production across the industry and by all major auto manufactures.Consider the assistance we could have rendered if we had sent Ukraine $325 million instead of giving it to Medicago, a biopharmaceutical company in Liberal MP Jean-Yves Duclos riding which failed to deliver anything for the money it received.Picture the provision of war we could have donated to Ukraine if Liberal insiders hadn’t embezzled more than $150 million worth of taxpayer dollars in what is shaping yet another ethics scandal regarding a green energy slush fund.It all comes down to accountability and Poilievre is right. The well-being of Canadians should be at the forefront of every Canadian politician's mind. That is who they are responsible too.The truth is we simply can’t afford to support Ukraine and a spendthrift Liberal government at the same time, without experiencing a detrimental effect to our standard of living. It has to be one or the other. And frankly, if the choice is between supporting Ukraine’s war, or Trudeau and his government, the latter definitely “isn’t worth the cost”.

THOMSON: Canada can't afford to fund Ukraine's war against Russia

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