Political consultation became a more accepted practice, despite occasional rather
blatant unilateral moves by some members, especially the United States and
France.

Because NATO provided an organized way for allies to coordinate policy, it
was relatively easy for the Canadian government regularly to declare that NATO
formed the bedrock of its security policy. Although public support for member-
ship occasionally wavered, it never fell below a level of firm acceptance of this
fact. When Prime Minister Trudeau took office, however, his lack of enthusiasm
for NATO had a practical effect. Following an examination of Canada's position
in the alliance, Canadian forces in Europe, never large compared with those of
other members but still more than token in size, were reduced by half, to about
5,000 men. Military expenditures which had already noticeably declined in the
early 1960s, continued to decline during Trudeau's years in office and the gap
between commitments and capabilities widened, persisting after the cold war
ended. During the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney some rehabili-
tation took place, but was hobbled by the increasing budget deficit.

To some extent the decline in military spending had been due to the increas-
ing difficulty of finding a suitable military role for Canada in the alliance.
Canada was definitely the "odd man out," as John Holmes put it. Still, when
important decisions were taken about new weapons systems, the choice came
closer in several instances to systems that would enhance Canada's role in the
alliance than to systems that would narrowly protect Canadian territory.

The NATO allies seemed to appreciate Canada's contribution to NATO in
Europe only after the forces were scheduled to be reduced or removed; the allies
also tended to overlook Canada's other contributions--providing antisubmarine
warfare capabilities in the Atlantic and territory for allies to train their air forces.
In addition, for some years Canada maintained a rapid deployment force at home
with prepositioned material in Norway supposedly to help guard against a pos-
sible Soviet thrust in that region. Canadian expertise in cold-climate operations
was expected to be useful in this northern terrain. Overstretched commitments
caused the Mulroney government to abandon this deployment in favor of the
Canadian military presence in West Germany. Finally, with the collapse of the
Soviet Union, all Canadian forces were withdrawn from Europe by August,
1994.

When the defense of North America was first organized under NORAD
(North American Air Defense Command, later called North American Acrospace
Defense Command), the Canadians would have preferred for the command to be
loosely tied in with NATO, but that did not occur, because of U.S. objections.

-15-