I welcome the recent call from Sun Media’s parliamentary bureau chief, David Akin, for Canada’s defence spending record to become an election issue this fall. As defence minister, I would gladly put the Conservative record up against the sad legacy left by the Liberals.

Our government has made significant investments since 2006, increasing National Defence spending from $14.5 billion in 2005-06 to $20.1 billion in 2014-15 on a cash basis.

That represents a 38% increase - a far cry from when the Liberals were in power.

In fact, back in March the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported on the Liberal era, noting that “the most significant cuts” to defence happened “from 1995 to 2004.”

National Defence is projected to account for more than 7.1% of all government expenses in 2014-15, higher as a share of federal spending than when we took office.

We’re also providing stable, inflation-protected funding for our military.

Our latest federal budget boosts the built-in annual increases for baseline defence spending from 2% to 3% starting in 2017.

This will add almost $12 billion to National Defence over 10 years. Indeed, defence is the only department that receives an “annual escalator.”

When the opposition parties can’t attack head-on over military spending, they like to make hay about Canada’s defence budgets as a percentage of GDP.

But those calculations don’t tell the whole story.

Typically they’re based only on baseline budgets. They don’t reflect actual spending, which usually includes additional funds for missions and operations.

In addition, we set aside billions of dollars for buying critical new equipment for the military, like our five C-17 heavy lift transport planes.

Under the Liberals, Canada had to rely on its allies to have this capability. Now, we are self-reliant.

And the four used submarines the Liberals bought from Britain? It’s our government that made the fleet operational.

Likewise, it’s our Conservative government that cleaned up the mess left by the Liberals after they cancelled a project to replace the Sea King helicopter fleet that has been flying since The Brady Bunch was in its first run on television.

Next month, we expect to start accepting the first of Canada’s new maritime helicopters. Eventually that will allow us to start retiring the old Sea Kings.

Irving Shipbuilding will also begin cutting steel this September for Canada’s new fleet of arctic offshore patrol vessels. This will boost our ability to protect Canadian sovereignty.

From modernizing our armoured vehicles, tanks, patrol planes and frigates to setting out on a $26.2-billion shipbuilding program, we’re providing the Canadian Armed Forces with the equipment our opponents refused to give them when they were in power.

In the end, though, money spent on the military is not the best measure of a defence policy.

The real question is what results are achieved – something NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated recently.

“Canada is such a strong and committed ally and you provide substantial contributions to so many different NATO missions and operations,” Stoltenberg said in Ottawa last March.

Whether the Canadian Armed Forces are involved in Iraq and Syria, reassuring friends in Eastern Europe, or helping Nepal recover from an earthquake, they are excelling in the work we ask them to do.

And they’re better equipped than they have been in decades to do that work.

- Jason Kenney is Minister of National Defence and the MP for Calgary Southeast.