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<\/p>\nUnder a new international spotlight in America\u2019s second Trump era, Canada\u2019s renewed upgrades to defence spending and heightened visibility on the geopolitical scene are coming at a time when Canada needs to assert its sovereignty, according to retired Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) David Fraser.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to take this more seriously than we ever have before,\u201d the Edmonton native said in a Jan. 29 interview with Postmedia.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s brigadier-general the first time Canada commanded U.S. troops since the Second World War \u2014 in Operation Medusa in Afghanistan \u2014 retired as a two-star general in 2011. He sees heightened peril in today\u2019s shifting geopolitical sands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is, in fact, a much more dangerous world, and one that Canada is going to do an awful lot more by itself in order to maintain what we\u2019ve taken for granted for decades,\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
A rougher world<\/p>\n
Coalitions are increasingly complicated by a newly more isolationist neighbour to the south, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(President Donald) Trump wants and expects us, along with all the other NATO partners, to do an awful lot more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship we have with the Americans in the past is no longer there. The world has changed. It\u2019s become, quite frankly, a lot rougher. There is a lot less co-ordination and collaboration with allies like the United States, and they are becoming more isolationist, and as a result of their decisions to become more isolationist, it means that we have to do more (with NATO and NORAD) in as a result of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver lining? Demonstrating to the world that we\u2019re prepared to do what\u2019s necessary to keep our civil liberties the way they are \u2014 not \u201cbusiness as usual,\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s \u2018courageous\u2019 Davos speech<\/p>\n
Mark Carney\u2019s step up to the world podium at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week earned the PM a rare standing ovation, \u201ca very courageous speech that kind of just said what everybody was thinking,\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all \u2014 each and every one of us \u2014 going to have to pick up our socks and do more working together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Supply-chain shifts amid new American isolationism means solidifying new trading partners, and Fraser cites trade deals Carney has cemented, with the U.K. prime minister following suit and other nations acting accordingly, \u201cre-establishing old linkages and diversifying our trade so that we can all carry on living peacefully amongst each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defence spending infusion<\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s $80-billion infusion to defence spending announced in recent weeks isn\u2019t just buying F35s and ships, but support and maintenance for decades to come, David Fraser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to help stimulate our economy, improve our innovation, keep us technologically relevant with all the changes in technology. And this should spur other investments and other capabilities inside of the defence industry and the Canadian economy as a whole, which should actually mitigate some of the stuff that\u2019s going on vis-a-vis tariffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The outlay may also mean clout in conversations over CUSMA, the Trump-negotiated North American trade agreement that America\u2019s commander-in-chief has shown lukewarm enthusiasm for in the first year of his second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re probably going to get less attention than some countries, like Greenland and Denmark, have received by this president,\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the world is trying to deal with Donald Trump. What Canada is doing as a middle nation, we can demonstrate how as a middle nation we can work and live beside a great power like the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
APRIL 24, 2006 \u2014 Brigadier General David Fraser Regional Command South Commander visits the troops stationed in Gumbad during his visit to the region a Shura (meeting) with village elders will be held in the local village.<\/p>\n
He sees Canada\u2019s stepping up inside NATO and Carney\u2019s place in the World Economic Forum as reasons the world is listening to Canada \u201cin ways that we haven\u2019t been listened to for years,\u201d he said, citing the nation\u2019s long history of punching above weight \u2014 in the first and second world wars, in Korea, in the Cold War, the Balkans, and Afghanistan \u2014 where Fraser\u2019s own efforts earned a chestful of medals, Canadian and American.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our time in the in the sun, to actually demonstrate leadership amongst those nations very much akin to us, who can work with superpowers like the United States, especially against the threats of what Russia and China present to all of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The world has become a lot more complicated\u2019<\/p>\n
If Canada\u2019s looking more hawkish, Fraser doesn\u2019t stray into Doomsday thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see Armageddon coming or anything like that,\u201d he told Postmedia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do see Russia is a real military threat that we haven\u2019t seen for decades, as illustrated by what they did in Crimea and Ukraine. The threat is accentuated because of their technological innovation of using AI and drones and cyber. And add on top of that, China\u2019s an economic threat and a growing military threat, and so we are looking at hemispherical threats to Canada and to the world that have to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
To his credit, U.S. President Donald Trump has addressed that to some extent, Fraser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s awakened the world to that fact. Hence NATO is spending five per cent GDP, as opposed to two. And these are good things against nations that don\u2019t have the same philosophy that we do,\u201d he said, adding that the clash is not strictly black-and-white.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is techno-colour gray \u2014 we still have to work with certain nations like China economically, to make sure that they don\u2019t they get out of check. You can\u2019t ignore them. You\u2019ve got to work with them to try to mitigate the threats they have, and others,\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world has become a lot more complicated, a lot more dangerous than it has in the last 40 or 50 years, but I think we\u2019ve got a prime minister and we\u2019ve got a nation that\u2019s doing its part in all this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
jcarmichael@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under a new international spotlight in America\u2019s second Trump era, Canada\u2019s renewed upgrades to defence spending and heightened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11213,49,48,30877,184424,184423,44,168694,3277],"class_list":["post-447246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-afghanistan","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carney","tag-david-allison-fraser","tag-david-fraser","tag-news","tag-president-donald","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}