I think the Canadian Armed Forces is a foreign policy tool, possibly the government's most important foreign policy tool. I'm not sure that's widely understood by Canadians or even on the Hill.
I think what we saw during Afghanistan was attention by the government to the Canadian Armed Forces as an instrument of policy and as an instrument of national power, and we saw a government that stood behind its Canadian Armed Forces and made the Canadian Armed Forces a policy priority.
I think inherently when people look at what employer they are going to join, they want to join an employer that has the backing of the government of the day. I think it is key that defence be a top policy priority at any given time, regardless of the political stripe of the government, in the Prime Minister's Office and in cabinet. I'm not sure that's reflected to Canadians, at times, in government policy.