Liberal Party: Defence Platform Commitments

Official Platform: Forward. For Everyone.

Broad Themes:

• Ensure affordability, economic support, and improve access to health care and childcare
• Fight climate change and promote Indigenous reconciliation

Personnel / Sexual misconduct

• Improve CAF diversity
• Implement Justice Arbour’s recommendations to address sexual harassment and misconduct in the CAF, and institute external oversight and independence over the processes of reporting, investigating, and adjudicating complaints, outside the chain of command
• Implement Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism, Discrimination’s recommendations to ensure defence team members work in a safe and respectful workplace
• Modernize the military justice system, including implementing Justice Fish’s recommendations
• Expand Sexual Misconduct Response Centre resources
• Expand health services available to CAF women
• Co-design and fully fund a permanent peer-to-peer support program for CAF members who have experienced military sexual trauma
• Address all sources of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, LGBTQ2 prejudice, gender bias, and white supremacy in the Canadian Armed Forces

Operations / Relations

• Extend Operations REASSURANCE and UNIFIER, and maintain regular participation in NATO’s aerial and maritime patrol operations
• Work with international partners to establish a NATO Centre of Excellence on Climate and Security in Canada
• Expand cooperation and assistance to partners, allies and international organizations in humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery
• Lead and establish a global coalition to respond to wildfires and other climate emergencies
• Continue to implement domestic measures to protect Canadians and work with allies and partners to respond to illegal and unacceptable behaviour by authoritarian states, including China, Russia, and Iran
• Work with G7, NATO, and likeminded partners to develop and expand collective responses to arbitrary detention, economic coercion, cyber threats, foreign interference in democratic processes, and egregious violations of human rights

Procurement / Spending

• Expand Canada’s long and short-range strategic airlift capability

Continental Defence / Arctic

• Work with the US to modernize NORAD, upgrade the North Warning System, deploy new technological solutions to improve surveillance and monitoring, improve command and control systems, and invest in the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to deter and defeat threats to North America
• Ensure investments and upgrades support northern communities and strengthen Canada’s Arctic