As you know, we are not alone. There are many European allies that find themselves in the same boat as we are where the world moved on a lot faster than their willingness to invest in instruments of statecraft, but as allies, we have a collective $20-trillion deficit over the last 35 years relative to investment by the United States. If we believe we need to become more sovereign, as our U.S. allies also want us to be so that we can pick up some of that slack, then it means we will need to make up for some of those deficits and some of those lags that we have had.
I am encouraged by what is being put forward, but I would be much more encouraged if the government would, at least on defence, do what our key allies do—Norway, France and Australia, for instance—and forge a multipartisan defence policy so that, irrespective of who is in charge, we will broadly agree on the trajectory forward. That, I think, also sends a signal to our population and gives us the social licence for the types of investments that governments are looking to make in the sovereignty of this country.