President Donald Trump is continually criticized for just about every policy his government undertakes. Among the strongest criticisms is his foreign policy, including his negative stance towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He has even raised the possibility of the United States (US) pulling out of the organization altogether.This sort of talk causes considerable anxiety among the media and politicians in other NATO member countries, including Canada.No Canadian leader would ever consider leaving NATO, right? It’s such a crazy proposition.Well, it turns out that one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers did want Canada to pull out of NATO. Although he failed to achieve this goal, he drastically reduced Canada’s military strength and pulled thousands of troops out of Europe to minimize Canada’s contribution to NATO.Of course, this was prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and his anti-NATO and anti-military views are recounted in Bob Plamondon’s 2013 book, The Truth About Trudeau.During his first term as prime minister, Trudeau argued for pulling Canada out of NATO. As Plamondon puts it, “At the cabinet table, Trudeau advocated for a withdrawal from NATO to make Canada a ‘neutral’ nation, akin to Switzerland and Sweden.”.Thankfully, many cabinet ministers rejected that idea outright. As a result, Trudeau was forced to back down. “Policy advisor Ramsay Cook wrote that Trudeau would have pulled out of NATO entirely, but it would not have been worth the political grief at home and abroad.”Although Trudeau eventually realized he couldn’t get Canada out of NATO, he could at least drastically reduce Canada’s contribution. Therefore, on “September 19, 1969, Ottawa cut Canada’s NATO force in half, from 10,000 to 5,000 men. The reduction formed part of a larger overall reduction of our forces by 16,000 troops, bringing the planned complement of our uniformed Canadian military to 82,000 troops.”Why was Trudeau opposed to Canada’s NATO membership? Well, according to Plamondon, he “told his cabinet that NATO was unnecessary because the Soviet Union, which had recently crushed the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, did not pose a threat requiring a deterrent force in Europe.” The Soviet military build-up was nothing to be concerned about, in his view.Not coincidentally, Trudeau had expressed favourable views of the Soviet Union and its political system before entering politics, and it seems he didn’t want Canada to play much of a role in defending Europe from Soviet Communism.Needless to say, our NATO allies were unhappy about Canada’s dwindling commitment.Reducing Canada’s role in NATO was part of a greater effort to shrink Canada’s ability to defend itself. Trudeau made very large cuts in Canada’s military budget. Plamondon writes, “While Trudeau made the bulk of his military cuts in his first term as prime minister, the decline never abated. The portion of the federal budget devoted to defence dropped from 15.4 percent in 1968, to 10.7 percent in 1972, to 7.2 percent in 1983.”.In 1968, Canada’s total forces consisted of about 100,000 personnel. When Trudeau left office in 1984, that number was down to about 80,000. Considering that Canada’s population had been growing during that period, the relative reduction in troop strength was about 36%.Not only did he drastically reduce defence spending and the size of the military, but Trudeau also considered repurposing the military for other uses. For example, “he spoke at the cabinet table about our military forces building highways and solving problems of pollution as cadres for social development.” Thankfully, the defence minister opposed this idea.There was only one area where Trudeau seemed interested in Canada’s military, and that was in making it fully bilingual. In the first ten years of his administration, the proportion of French-speaking officers almost doubled from about one-tenth to almost one-fifth. “This was achieved through quotas and mandating promotions for ‘qualified personnel’ who could exercise their duties in French. But this meant the best officers spent time in language training, rather than with their troops, to ensure a rise in rank.”Needless to say, the Americans were very concerned about Trudeau’s defence policies. Plamondon quotes another source as writing, “Trudeau was too much of a pacifist and a leftist for the Americans, some of whom considered him little more than a communist.” Trudeau’s policies certainly reduced Canada’s ability to defend itself and to contribute to Western defence against Soviet military aggression. Considering that, as well as Trudeau’s favourable statements about communism before entering politics, the Americans had a reasonable basis for their views. The prime minister who — as a young man — refused to fight for Canada in World War Two would later reduce Canada’s ability to do its part to deter Soviet aggression during the Cold War. He wouldn’t fight the Nazis when his country called, and when Canada’s allies needed help to defend against the spread of communism, Pierre Trudeau once again backed away from opposing the enemy. It leaves one wondering: whose side was he on?
