Military Budgets, Golden Dome and Nuclear War

The Right Honourable Mark Carney                                          

Prime Minister of Canada

80 Wellington St.

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

cc. The Hon. Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs

c.c. The Hon. David McGuinty, Minister of National Defence

RE: Military Budgets, Golden Dome and Nuclear War

Dear Prime Minister Carney,

Since assuming office, you have made two of the most potentially consequential and profoundly disturbing announcements ever made by a Canadian Prime Minister - both with little or no consultation, nor evidence of the support of the Canadian electorate.  The first, that Canada agrees with a 150% increase in Defence spending by NATO states to 5% of GDP by 2035 from the longstanding target of 2% which Canada will meet for the first time, this year.  The second, that Canada may participate in U.S. President Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Defence System which, in our view, will accelerate the arms race, lead to the weaponization of space and increase the risk of nuclear war. In addition to being tragically ill-conceived, the resource implications of both endeavours appear excessive in the extreme. We urge you and your colleagues to reconsider.

NATO Defence Spending

According to the 2025 Annual Report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military expenditures in 2024 rose to US$2.718 trillion, a 9.4% increase over the previous year and the steepest year-on-year increase since the Cold War. NATO military spending alone totalled $1.506 trillion, 55% of the global total, almost 5 times that of China at $314 billion and more than 10 times that of Russia at $149 billion.  That NATO must increase military spending by an additional 150% over current levels to defend member states, defies reason.  

Consider the opportunity costs. Current global military expenditures are already 13 times the $214 billion the world dedicated to Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2024 according to the OECD – down 6% from 2023, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates has already resulted in 1.8 million unnecessary deaths. OCHA anticipates that ODA will fall by an additional 9% through 2025 and the downward trajectory will continue.

Golden Dome

U.S. President Trump’s so-called Golden Dome initiative, effectively reviving the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) or ‘Star Wars’ announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, is conceived as a comprehensive ground and space-based system to intercept and destroy incoming ballistic nuclear missiles. SDI envisaged the development of X-ray lasers, particle beam weapons and kinetic “hit to kill” interceptors, technology that was ultimately deemed not feasible. Golden Dome aspires to protect America from even the most sophisticated nuclear or conventional missile attack.

Missile technology, however, has become highly sophisticated since the 1980s. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) reports that Russia’s Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, for example, is maneuverable during flight and may reach Mach 27 (32,000 km/h). The RS-28 SARMAT, appropriately nicknamed “Satan II”, a hyper-sonic missile, ostensibly has a range of 16,000 kilometers at lower altitudes and up to 35,000 kilometers with a sub-orbital flight path. It literally can strike any point on earth from any direction, including over the South Pole to attack North America’s vulnerable southern border. Each missile can carry 16 independently targeted and maneuverable nuclear war-heads, each with its own counter measures and a combined explosive yield of up to 12,000 megatons - 800 times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.  

A separate concern, is short and medium range cruise missiles that can be launched in large numbers from nuclear powered submarines that are almost impossible to detect and can remain submerged off the coast of perceived adversaries for months at a time. Just one American Ohio-class sub can carry 192 nuclear warheads with a total explosive yield more than 6,000 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Other nuclear weapons states have similar capabilities.

A missile defence system as envisaged for Golden Dome will literally propel the arms race into space, abrogating Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty and Article 3.3 of the Moon Treaty. Further, it will incentivize greater offensive weapons production by adversaries in an effort to defeat this system.  

The simple and terrifying fact is that it may never be possible to adequately counter a concerted attack with hypersonic, nuclear armed missiles that can evade radar systems.   The only truly effective defence against nuclear weapons is to eliminate them entirely, as has been done with chemical and biological weapons.

Conclusion

Prime Minister, Canada must be a strong voice of reason in a world that is becoming more unstable by the day. While fully acknowledging the need to maintain a robust military capacity to defend our nation and to fulfil our legal and moral obligations to help combat aggression abroad, we implore you to renounce both the outrageously disproportionate new NATO defence spending target, and Canada’s engagement in the strategic ballistic missile defence components of Donald Trump’s ill-conceived Golden Dome initiative.

We respectfully urge the Government of Canada to promote a broader common security framework for national and international defence and to be an example for the world by ramping up investment in diplomacy to prevent and resolve conflict, in international development to assist the forgotten millions who struggle daily for their very survival, and by undertaking concerted action to combat climate change and to rid the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons - investments that will generate far greater returns in Canadian and global security.

Sincerely,

Earl Turcotte, Chairperson, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW)

Dr. Arnd Jurgensen, Incoming Chairperson and Member of the Steering Committee

Ms. Beverley Delong, Past Chairperson and Member of the Steering Committee

Dr. Sylvie Lemieux, Past Co-chairperson and Member of the Steering Committee

Mr. Robin Collins – Past Co-chairperson and Member of the Steering Committee

Dr. Nancy Covington – Member of the Steering Committee

Dr. John Guilfoyle – Member of the Steering Committee