"The Canada First Defence Strategy of 2008 And The 20 Year Defence Budget"

A helpful anaysis by Brian MacDonald, Senior Defence Analyst, Conference of Defence Associations. I think though it may be rather optimistic to think that "...a de facto bi-partisan agreement between the Liberal and Conservative parties that the cuts in the defence budget during the post-Cold War period had gone too deeply and had to be reversed, and reversed quickly..." will continue (p. 9).

Here's the "Strategy". The thing is, there is no strategy. The substance of the paper is basically all about equipment acquisition, total CF personnel strength, budgets, industrial benefits, etc. There is nothing about what level of strength each service may be expected to commit to various types of missions nor what overall individual service strengths are required. The paper is essentially a status quo document.

Moreover, there is no detailed analysis of the nature of domestic and international missions the CF may be asked to conduct and why the CF need to be configured and equipped as planned to carry out those missions. Nor is there any assessment of the nature of the opponents/threats they are to deal with abroad--or off our coasts or in our airspace. Steady as she goes...

I ask: why do we require the forces composed as outlined?