You may agree with me that the problem we're currently facing is that Canada seems to be following a trend that we are seeing not only domestically but also globally: increasing defence spending while cutting spending on international development. It is as though these two envelopes must be linked in some way, whereas, in my view, they should be treated as completely separate.
Indeed, we are currently seeing a rise in conflicts, an increase in defence spending and sharp cuts to international aid, whether in Europe, Japan, Canada or the United States, in the case of USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development. This places us in a situation that could potentially cause these problems to grow exponentially if all the factors I've just mentioned continue to compound.
How can we get out of this at this point? Is Canada heading in the right direction?