STEPHEN HARPER, Canada’s prime minister, has made support for the military a signature theme of his government, boasting that the ruling Conservatives had rescued the armed forces from a Liberal-imposed decade of darkness. The welcome-home ceremony on March 18th for the last contingent of Canadian troops to serve in Afghanistan was an event tailor-made for him.

After the returning soldiers had hugged babies, kissed spouses and snapped photos, the prime minister addressed the assembled families. He praised their valour and paid tribute to the 162 Canadians who had died and the 2,000 who were wounded in the mission and declared that May 9th would be a new national day of honour to pay tribute to them.

But the government’s oft-expressed support for the troops is now being strained by its desire to balance the federal budget ahead of an anticipated 2015 election. Gone are the days when having a well-equipped military was a key part of the government’s plan to revive Canada’s leadership in the world. Criticism by veterans’ groups of government changes to their pensions and of treatment of traumatised soldiers have also undermined the relationship.

Mr Harper started out with good intentions. Defence spending rose to a recent peak of just over C$20 billion ($17.9 billion) in 2011-12 from C$14.7 billion in 2005-06, the last year the Liberals were in power. The forces in Afghanistan were re-equipped with tanks, armoured vehicles and desert camouflage. The government splashed out on four C-17 Globemaster strategic lift aircraft, one of which was used to transport the last troops home, and promised there was much more to come.

But after the global financial crisis and a recession in Canada, plans changed. Instead of following the promised steady trajectory upward, defence spending is now on a downward trend and is projected to be C$17.6 billion in 2016-17. Many of the promised big-ticket items like new fighter jets, Arctic patrol ships and maritime helicopters have been pushed well beyond the next election, leaving them vulnerable to cancellation by a future government. The decision to maintain staff levels at 68,000 military personnel and just over 24,000 civilians means wages and inflation will keep pushing up costs. Savings will have to come out of reduced maintenance costs and fewer foreign operations.

There aren’t too many of those left (see map). With the return of the troops from Afghanistan, Canada has only 400 members of the armed forces serving abroad, 250 of them on the HMCS Regina as part of a multinational, maritime, counter-terrorism force in the Arabian Sea. Peacekeeping, once a Canadian forte, has withered under the Conservatives, who have sought to rebrand Canada as a warrior nation. Of the 400 troops deployed abroad, just over 50 are on UN missions, including the lone Canadian representative in Cyprus, where Canada has contributed to the peacekeeping force since 1964. The C$286.5m budgeted for international combat (defined as delivering military power outside of North America, usually under a UN, NATO or other international agreement) in the coming year is less than the C$288.4m the government intends to spend promoting Canada’s military heritage and on something called “outreach”, which appears to be a combination of public relations and youth training.

Future plans for the military are unclear. The government is reviewing its now-dated 2008 Canada First Defence Strategy. The Conference of Defence Associations Institute, whose members include retired military officers, decried the current state of affairs in its 2014 outlook saying, “the lack of a clear definition of what the Government wants from its armed forces makes it difficult to define a strategy and underpin it with the right equipment, resources, and training and to plan joint services operations.”

Spending figures suggest the government intends to talk a lot but spend less on the military in the coming years. The new day of honour that Mr Harper announced fits nicely with this approach. New military commitments do not.