A defence industrial policy is a good offence

Canada could revisit its industrial policy and consider a new defence, dual-use, industrial policy. This would take advantage of the government’s already-announced commitment to ramp defence spending up to five per cent of GDP over the next decade.

Defence Minister David McGuinty, pictured June 10, 2025, on the Hill. Industrial policy is in play whether we like it or not. Our major trading partner is deploying it very aggressively through tariffs. It is time for us to counter these with industrial policies, write Kevin Lynch and Paul Deegan. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY KEVIN LYNCH, PAUL DEEGAN

August 14, 2025

Policy interest and political support for industrial policy ebbs and flows in Canada. From Canada's National Policy of the second half of the 19th century—which focused on railway construction, immigration and tariffs—to wartime military production in the...

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