Collateral damage and the Canada-U.S. defence board freeze

Alliances will shift, trade talks will stall, and military procurement decisions will be reconsidered all because one party is no longer interested in hearing the other's views.

United States President Donald Trump. The loss of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence is a recipe for growing divergence, wasted resources, and increasing hostility, says former co-chair and Liberal MP John McKay.White House photograph by Molly Riley

Opinion

BY JOHN MCKAY

May 25, 2026

Last week, the United States' Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby announced the demise of the 86-year-old Permanent Joint Board on Defence. Originally established by then-American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and then-prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to manage...

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