Trudeau gives NATO speech to empty room 

The Prime Minister is getting mocked online after social media users learned his final speech at the NATO summit in Washington was given to an empty room. 

Trudeau stood alongside Defence Minister Bill Blair, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly, in front of what appears to be forty empty chairs.

“Another empty room for Trudeau,” said social media user, Juan Pablo, perhaps recalling when the CBC claimed that Justin Trudeau received a standing ovation for his speech in the EU, but didn’t mention that over nine-tenths of the parliament left before he began.

A few reporters did end up asking Trudeau questions following his speech, meaning at least some people were in the room — likely those who had to be there.

But the discovery that virtually no one showed up to listen to what he had to say is aligned with the narrative that Canada is not taken seriously by NATO member countries and their respective delegations that attended the three-day summit in Washington, D.C. 

The federal Liberals have faced criticism regarding their failure to spend 2% of their GDP towards national defence, as agreed by NATO member countries. According to the NATO estimate, Canada is near the bottom of the list of the 32 member countries, with military spending amounting to 1.37 percent of its GDP.

During the summit, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson scolded the Trudeau Liberals for what he said was a “shameful” lack of spending. As bad as it was, it wasn’t as embarrassing as what Alaskan US Senator, Dan Sullivan, said last year, when he called Canada’s defence spending “feeble” and said that Canada should be “put at the kids table.” 

The Prime Minister said on Thursday that he has a plan to get to 2%, but not until 2032, when it’s likely that he’ll be far removed from the Canadian political landscape.

On Friday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre mocked Trudeau, calling him a world-class embarrassment.