3 in 4 Canadians show support for defence spending on new submarines, Nanos survey shows

HMCS Windsor, one of Canada's Victoria-class submarines, performs sea trials in the Bedford Basin in Halifax in this December 2012 file photo. (Andrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Three in four Canadians support defence spending on new submarines, according to a new survey from Nanos Research and CTV News.

Conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 2, the survey of more than 1,000 Canadian adults asked respondents to rate their support or opposition for a recently announced purchase of 12 submarines to add to Canada’s military fleet, said to cost up to an expected $120 billion.

Among those surveyed, 44 per cent said they supported the decision, with another 32 per cent reporting they felt somewhat supportive. A further 10 per cent each said they were somewhat or completely opposed to the spending, and four per cent said they were unsure.

While survey responses did not vary widely by demographic, support for the submarine buys was more common in Ontario (79.6 per cent) than in other provinces (Roughly 73 per cent in Quebec and Atlantic Canada and roughly 74 per cent in B.C. and the Prairies), among men versus women (77.5 and 75.1 per cent, respectively) and among older Canadians (83.4 per cent for those aged 55 or older, 62.8 per cent among those aged 18 to 34).

Spotlight on NATO spending

The planned 12-submarine purchase was announced in July amid a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada’s key strategic alliance with the United States, United Kingdom and 29 other countries, including much of the European Union.

Among the commitments of NATO member countries is a defence-spending target of two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a benchmark that Canada presently does not meet.

“This guideline also serves as an indicator of a country’s political will to contribute to NATO’s common defence efforts,” reads a publication from the organization.

A 2022 report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer shows that Canada’s defence spending hovered roughly at or below 1.5 per cent of GDP between 2014 and 2021, and based on forecasts from earlier this year, that figure would remain shy of two per cent until beyond the 2029/30 fiscal year.

In the past decade, the number of NATO allies meeting the two-per-cent guideline has grown to 23 as of this year, up from three in 2014, according to a June press release.

Speaking of the submarines in July, Defence Minister Bill Blair said in a news release that the new fleet “will enable Canada to protect its sovereignty in a changing world, and make valuable, high-end contributions to the security of our partners and NATO allies.”

Methodology

On behalf of CTV News, Nanos Research conducted an RDD dual-frame survey, online and over the phone, with a random sample size of 1,058 Canadian adults. The survey was conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 2, 2024, and carries a margin for error of plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender, in accordance with available Census data, to be representative of Canada.