Canada Meets NATO’s 2 Percent GDP Defence Spending Benchmark

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and National Defence Minister David McGuinty make an announcement aboard HMCS Margaret Brooke at HMC Dockyard Halifax in Halifax on March 26, 2026. The Canadian Press/Darren Calabrese

Canada has hit NATO’s defence spending target of 2 percent of GDP, after a year marked by the biggest jump in military expenditures “in generations,” Prime Minister Mark Carney says.

“For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, we'll be spending that 2 percent of GDP on defence,” Carney said at a press conference in Halifax on March 26, noting Canada has spent more than $60 billion on defence and security to meet the target. He said this fiscal year saw the “largest year-on-year increase in defence investment in generations.”