Canada, someone once observed, is a country that likes to be invited to all the fancy international events, but somehow always manages to be in the bathroom when the cheque comes around at the end of the evening. And while we normally enjoy getting the attention of the Americans, when they take the time to point out this particular failing, we aren’t quite as glad.
It happened again last week. Dan Sullivan, a Republican senator from Alaska, was taking part in congressional hearings on the United States’ support for Ukraine, when he criticized America’s allies for being freeloaders on national defense, and asked why the U.S. was doing so much of the heavy lifting for global security, including (but not limited to) Ukraine. The senator specifically mentioned Canada twice. He was wrong in one of his references — he said Canada’s defense spending won’t hit one per cent of GDP, which is untrue — but his other comment was accurate and fair.
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