National Defence committee  The main opposition in practice is that NATO doesn't want to be coerced. The solid argument against it is we shouldn't be doing this with a gun to our head. The bad argument, in response to your question, is that countries get to choose their own allies. It's the Americans and the Canadians who are going to be paying the bill for that, so it's not a very sound argument.

National Defence committee  Well, look, a couple of months ago, ma'am, it was reported that the Chinese had conducted a hypersonic weapons test. Not only had we not achieved that, but also a lot of our scientists thought it was impossible. There are enormous breakthroughs going on, and we should no longer think of China in particular as playing catch-up.

National Defence committee  The only thing I would say to that is that I think this should all be in the context of an overarching alignment over China. This is an argument similar to the one I made to the Europeans. It's that I think the deal is going to be, because Canada is reliant on American defence capability, just implicitly....

National Defence committee  I basically agree. The Russians have local military superiority. We have not militarized, from a NATO perspective, most of the situation in the former Warsaw Pact areas. We have very limited forces. We talk about these battalions that deploy, but they're very modest compared to what the Russians can deploy.

National Defence committee  I'm not qualified to talk about the Canadian diplomatic corps. All I would say, Madam, is that in addition to the points that Mr. Rasiulis has made, Canada and others could also support, especially, Ukraine's ability to defend itself, which is an important part of this Finland model.

National Defence committee  Well, madam, the more Canada can do the better, but I think if your interests are localized in the Arctic, that's an important place to play. You're right to point to the Chinese as well as the Russians, but I would suggest that Canada can play a role beyond the Arctic that, I think, would be very welcome and useful.

National Defence committee  I hope not. I certainly don't think so.

National Defence committee  I have not seen any evidence to that effect.

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of the specifics. The United States is always looking to the Wales commitment as probably the arbiter. That's the main thing I would focus on.

National Defence committee  Well, obviously the North American continental defence, which is going to be.... I mean, homeland defence has become a much bigger issue for the United States, because in the old days it was just nuclear attacks, basically, that we had to worry about at home. That, of course, was the origin of NORAD, but today we're looking at a wide variety of other kinds of conventional strikes and cyber-attacks.

National Defence committee  I would just say briefly, sir, that I think on the defence co-operation side, that's a very important tool. It is a diplomatic tool, confidence-building, but also we can be greater than the sum of the parts, depending on the context. The ideal European defence posture going forward looks a bit like the latter part of the Cold War, where there were different national units along the inner German border.

National Defence committee  Sure. Thank you. It's a difficult question. My own personal view is that Ukraine and Georgia are probably a bridge too far. States that were with the U.S.S.R., except for the Baltics, were probably a bridge too far. My view is that we should not admit Ukraine and Georgia into NATO under any circumstances.

National Defence committee  I'm not very subtle. I'm sorry.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Motz. With all due respect, I don't think Canada is punching above its weight. Its defence spending is between 1.3% and 1.4% and there is a Wales commitment to do 2%. I go around and I hear that people in Ottawa, Düsseldorf or Lyon don't feel that threatened. People in Ohio don't feel threatened either, and there is an increasing trend in the United States towards skepticism about our international commitments.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. A hundred percent. The Australians have been with us in our good wars and our bad wars. I mean, they're all bad wars. I should say our ill-advised wars and our well-advised wars. Of course, Canada was in the world wars throughout. There's no situation in which Americans would not welcome more.