They cleared the bar very slowly — in Trudeau’s first year in office Canada’s peacekeeping forces shrank from 112 to 106, in his second to 62 — and perhaps only briefly. In March the UN formally asked Canada to extend its mission by two-and-a-half months, to prevent a gap in medevac capabilities. “For decades, successive Liberal governments have undermined and under-funded Canada’s armed forces,” the Conservatives’ 2006 platform alleged. Military spending was at 2.9 per cent of government expenditures when they took office, peaked at 3.2 per cent in 2008, then bottomed out at 2.5 per cent in 2013. The Sea King helicopter fiasco was a central Conservative talking point on Liberal incompetence, and on military procurement specifically.

Source: National Post May 16, 2019 12:11 UTC