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On March 13, this editorial board wrote there was “hope yet that (Jason) Kenney will focus on the task at hand” and that he would learn to treat the job of defence minister with “the solemnity his office deserves.” It seems our hope was misplaced. It is starting to look like Kenney is simply not up to the job.

Everyone makes mistakes. And Kenney is, as the prime minister himself noted, “new to the portfolio.” But he is not new to cabinet and he ought to know by now that when a minister makes a serious public error, the mature and responsible thing to do is to acknowledge, correct and move on. Instead, Kenney has made a habit of doubling down and going on the offensive.

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“There are only five coalition partners doing airstrikes against ISIL terror targets in eastern Syria,” Kenney said on CTV recently. “The United States is the only one of those five that has precision-guided munitions. That is a capability the Royal Canadian Air Force has, so one of the reasons our allies have requested we expand our air sorties into eastern Syria is because with those precision-guided munitions our CF-18s carry we can be more impactful in the strikes we make against ISIL.”