{"id":54099,"date":"2026-05-21T04:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/54099\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:08:34","slug":"us-pulls-out-of-joint-military-board-with-canada-prompting-angry-responses-from-northern-neighbor-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/54099\/","title":{"rendered":"US pulls out of joint military board with Canada prompting angry responses from northern neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon\u2019s decision to pull out of a joint military board with Canada<\/a> that dates to World War II has prompted angry responses from Ottawa, as tensions continue to simmer between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.<\/p>\n

Elbridge Colby, an undersecretary of defense, announced<\/a> earlier this week that \u201cCanada has failed to make credible progress <\/a>on its defense commitments\u201d and so the U.S. was \u201cpausing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense to reassess how this forum benefits shared North American defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Military and civilian officials from both countries sit on the board, which typically meets once a year, established in 1940 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The Pentagon\u2019s decision comes amid tensions between America and Canada, which have soured since Donald Trump returned to office<\/a> and has repeatedly mocked the country by describing it as \u201cAmerica\u2019s 51st state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president has also long complained that the U.S. shoulders too much of the defense burden of Canada and other NATO countries.<\/p>\n

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney minimized the Pentagon\u2019s move, saying he \u201cwouldn\u2019t overplay the importance of this,\u201d former officials and defense experts viewed it as \u201ca warning shot\u201d to Ottawa, The Hill <\/a>reports.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s decision to pull out of a joint military board with Canada that dates to World War II has prompted angry responses from Ottawa, as tensions continue to simmer between the U.S. and its neighbor (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a symbolic blow from a Canadian sense,\u201d David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, told the outlet. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s maybe also a bit of a wake-up call about how we\u2019ve treated some of these unique forums of cooperation \u2014 that can\u2019t just treat them as historical artifacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Canadian parliament member John McKay, who served as the joint defense board\u2019s co-chair the last time the group met, told CBC News<\/a> that the decision was \u201cshort-sighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s foolish, but I’m not surprised,\u201d McKay told the Canadian broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Erin O\u2019Toole, a former Canadian minister of Veterans Affairs, questioned the timing of the decision in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is profoundly misguided and quite strange coming right after the President\u2019s visit to China,\u201d O\u2019Toole wrote. \u201cCanada has been and will be an ally that shares values of liberty. As a Canadian whose grandfather deployed to Alaska for joint defence in WWII, I hope we don\u2019t lose sight of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada has increased its military presence in the Arctic<\/a> partly in response to Trump\u2019s threats to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland.<\/p>\n

Andrea Charron of the Center for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg told The Hill that the U.S. cannot afford to push Canada away.<\/p>\n

\"Canada<\/p>\n

Canada has increased its military presence in the Arctic partly in response to Trump\u2019s threats to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland (Reuters)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the second-largest country in the world, and our radar systems and satellite systems give the U.S. advance warning, which they desperately need in an Arctic context, because it\u2019s the fastest avenue of attack,\u201d Charron told the outlet.<\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska also criticized the Pentagon\u2019s decision. \u201cCooler & wiser brains are needed to preserve a close alliance w\/ our neighbor,\u201d Bacon, who is not running for reelection, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis all started w\/ taunts of \u2018Canada will be the 51st state\u2019 & \u2018their Prime Minister will be the 51st governor,\u2019\u201d said Bacon. \u201cThe insults gained us nothing but animosity that cost us economically & now militarily.\u201d<\/p>\n

NATO countries, including Canada, pledged last year to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2035.<\/p>\n

Carney said last year the Canadian government would meet the previous 2 percent target for this year.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pentagon\u2019s decision to pull out of a joint military board with Canada that dates to World War…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23652,17,162,22561,23648,111,22705,23651,23653,22707,23650,23649],"class_list":["post-54099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-angry-responses","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-elbridge-colby","tag-joint-military-board","tag-mark-carney","tag-nato-countries","tag-northern-neighbor","tag-president-franklin-d-roosevelt","tag-prime-minister-mackenzie-king","tag-the-pentagon","tag-undersecretary-of-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}