February 1st, 2023 | ALLAN RAY

Billions To Ukraine, While Canadians Enter Poverty

By the middle of 2023, Canadians will have sent more than $4B in support to Ukraine.

Tent cities are becoming a trademark in places they never existed. Drug overdoses have risen to historic levels and personal insolvencies are on the rise. Canadians are going broke under punishing inflation, rising interest rates and astronomical costs of living. The income required to purchase a home in Vancouver has risen to $268,000 per year, while the historically more affordable cities have seen house prices and mortgage rates rise by 25% since 2020. Average rent prices have risen in every major city and rural community by 30% since 2019. Costs of child care across Canada have left families on the brink, while healthcare struggles have put cancer patients and sick Canadians on the doorstep of death. Our country is failing on every measure, yet we have sent more than $3B in aid and military support to Ukraine so far.

In November, Canada announced an additional $500M in support to Ukraine. This came after Canada had committed more than $3.4B in assistance since the war began. At the start of 2023, Canada has committed yet more to assist Ukraine with missile defences, with an estimated cost of more than $400M. By the time we reach the middle of the new year, Canada will have sent more than $4B in aid and support to Ukraine.

Since becoming our prime minister, we have heard Justin Trudeau tell us that veterans are asking for too much and that provinces should not expect more funding for healthcare until they commit to a series of hypothetical and undetermined reforms. Since becoming our leader, Trudeau has told struggling Canadians that they are shit out of luck, while sending billions in aid to other countries in an effort to make Canada look more virtuous to members of the World Economic Forum and United Nations.

Had we had a Conservative government, not much would be different.

Pierre Poilievre has supported every effort and motion to send aid to Ukraine since Putin's invasion. On some occasions, Poilievre has criticized the Trudeau government for not doing enough. According to official statements from the Conservative leader, the traditional narrative on Ukraine is stronger than we could imagine within the Conservative Party. The narrative dictates that Putin's aggression is “unprovoked” and that Ukraine is a sparkling clean democracy.

The Conservative Party would support Ukraine in the same way Trudeau has, but with stronger anti-Russian rhetoric and more aggressive stances against Putin. Under a Conservative government, we would be sending billions to Ukraine in aid and spending billions more on military support, NATO fees and missile defences. To this date, Pierre Poilievre has supported Trudeau's seemingly endless spending on Ukraine, while criticizing the prime minister for having a weak response to Russia.

Writing for the National Post during the onset of Russia's invasion in February 2022, Poilievre says, “We must impose a comprehensive set of punishing sanctions against Russia and stop all exports of western technology to Russia, and to the dictatorship in Belarus, which is complicit in this invasion.”

Before saying that, in the same article, Poilievre supports providing “urgent assistance” to Ukraine and brags about how the Harper government made supporting Ukraine a cornerstone of its foreign policy. The Conservative leader then goes on to criticize the Trudeau government for neglecting our military and keeping Canadian energy exports in the ground; both of which would have put Canada in a stronger position when dealing with Russia.

Despite making valid points on Putin's power to cut supplies to Europe and our suppressed energy sector, Poilievre repeats most of the same talking points as the current Liberal government and defends sending billions to Ukraine.

When it comes to solving our national drug, housing and poverty crises at home, neither mainstream political party has the required wherewithal to turn off the taps to Ukraine while simultaneously redistributing funds to where they are needed most. Neither the Conservatives nor Liberals would balance the books while taking care of their country's own citizens. Spending billions on solving the housing crisis and the affordability crisis should not require substantial national debts and deficits. By eliminating most foreign aid and war support, if only temporarily, Canada could fix several of its own problems at home without causing significant and long term fiscal damage.

The $4B we will have sent to Ukraine by the middle of this year could have been spent on alleviating the healthcare crisis and Canada's national housing crisis, simultaneously.

Much of what we are spending in deficits is done under the assumption that, as a wealthy nation, we will always have the means to pay off any incurred debts. However, as continued inflation and an impending recession loom on the horizon, our status as a permanently wealthy, first world nation is in doubt. At the moment, there is no doubt that drug addiction, consumer insolvencies and healthcare problems are reaching unprecedented levels in Canada.

Before the worst of it has yet arrived, our country is showing early signs of severe decline.

Now is not the time to rack up debt to support a war and to protect Ukraine, which has been repeatedly ranked as one of Europe's most corrupt countries. Now is the time to halt all foreign aid and to redistribute our wealth to those at home who need it. The countless billions being sent to other countries, not only Ukraine, could be directed at housing projects, healthcare reforms, drug rehabilitation, debt relief and many other programs to support struggling Canadian families. Now is not the time for Canada to live by standards and doctrines set by the World Economic Forum, World Bank and United Nations. We must set our own standards, beat our own paths and begin taking care of ourselves.