Ontario pivots to European defence market with car industry under threat

Victor Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, is following the money, and the money is gushing into defence. Defence spending in the Western world is set to climb fast. Even Canada, a perennial laggard on the weapons front, is getting into the game. At the NATO summit in The Hague, which starts Tuesday, the 32 member states will be asked to commit 5 per cent of their GDP to defence, up from the alliance’s decade-old spending target of 2 per cent – a target Canada and seven other countries have never met.