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Liberal defence minister Harjit Sajjan keeps saying that his government’s defence policy will guide the country’s military for a “generation.” That the policy will unfold over the next 20 years.

“For the first time National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces will have a 20 year funding commitment,” Sajjan said Wednesday.

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That’s rubbish, military officers privately say.

For that claim to be valid, it would require all federal governments to follow this plan for the next 20 years. It would assume that there are no major events in the world that would change the course of the plan, for better or worse.

How likely is that?

Over the years, Canadian governments have shown they can’t even follow their own defence plans, let alone those from other governments.

Take for instance, the Conservative’s “Canada First Defence Strategy.” That 2008 document, according to then Defence Minister Peter MacKay, was designed to guide the Canadian Forces for 20 years.