Defense spending.

The argument that Canada should spend 2% of its GDP on its military seems to rest on claims that "For the past two decades, both Russia and China, who share few of our values, have articulated the desire to expand their influence, by force if necessary."

To begin: Joseph Stalin died in 1953; Mao Zedong died in 1976; the USSR was dissolved in 1991; and the mission statement of today's Communist Party of China is "socialism with Chinese characteristics" – a mixed economy comprised of public- and private-sector enterprises.

Further: To ascertain precisely what values and desires motivate the leadership of China and Russia, a serious commentator would consult official statements published by the Kremlin and Beijing, not mainstream U.S. propaganda outlets such as the NY Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, or Fox.

The values and desires clearly articulated by both Moscow and Beijing emphasize developing their own domestic economies, improving the living standards of their populations, expanding international trade on a win-win basis with other sovereign nations, and contributing to the success of a law-based international order governed by the U.N. charter.

Since 1991, the U.S. has invaded or otherwise intervened militarily in Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. Countries in which the U.S. has orchestrated coups during this period include Ecuador, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Ukraine, and most likely Peru.

With the exception of border skirmishes with its neighbor India, China has been involved in no military adventures since 1991.

Russia, since 1991, has fought two wars against Chechen separatists, intervened in Georgia for 5 days to prevent a U.S.-installed government from joining NATO, and intervened at Bashar al-Assad's request to defend Syria from Islamist extremists, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, whom the U.S. backed.

In any objective reading of policy statements issued by Moscow and Beijing, questions of military preparedness are incidental to the overall aims of these countries, in every instance are defensive in nature, and respond to unrelenting aggression by the U.S. and its NATO and other vassals.

Canadian foreign policy dollars would be much more wisely spent, in the context of the multipolar world that is emerging as the U.S. empire declines, on training diplomats than on building warships, because the former will be far more useful in coming decades than the latter.