Scheer would make us even worse cheapskates on foreign aid

When Andrew Scheer released his party's foreign policy earlier this year it turned out to be in large part a copy of Donald Trump's. Pandering to the Israelis, hypocritical approach to Iran, etc. Now it appears he is also following the Donald' s lead on foreign aid.

Earlier this year, Trump had proposed slashing $4.3 billion in foreign aid already approved by Congress; Scheer has proposed reducing ours by a quarter. Trump had to back off on his cuts after fierce resistance from Congress. Hopefully Scheer won't get to implement his either.

Our foreign aid is already niggardly for a country as rich as Canada. In 1970, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which committed each economically advanced country to "exert its best efforts" to devote 0.70 per cent of its GDP to foreign aid. We aren't making much of an effort at all—our aid budget is currently 0.28 per cent of our GDP. Scheer would reduce it to 0.21.

Unsurprisingly, Sweden is by far the leader at 1.40 per cent. The United Kingdom makes the grade with 0.71. The U.S. only manages 0.17 per cent which even makes us look good.

Canada has never reached the 0.70 goal, coming closest in the 1970s at around 0.50 and mostly declining since. Recently we have slipped below the average of donor countries. Despite being "back," we persist in being a laggard.

The UN resolution establishing the 0.70 per cent resulted from the work of the Commission on International Development, commonly referred to as the Pearson Commission after its head, our very own former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lester Pearson. One wonders what he would think of his successors.