If I was making the decision, I wouldn't be asking how much should be sovereign and how much should be off the shelf. The question I'd be asking is how much we need in conjunction with our friends and allies to deter this 1913 or 1938.... How much do we need if we are forced to fight?
We get away from that number. We get away from this so-called sovereignty, because a war, if it comes, immediately blurs any lines of sovereignty. We will not be doing it by ourselves. We will be doing it in conjunction with those friends and allies we are engaged with, so it becomes a new question. The new questions are, do we have that capability to convince our friends and allies that we are serious, do we have the ability to add to the sum to deter and do we have the capability to then fight? Those become the important questions.
How we get there is a political and economic question. I know it is very important to the government, but it doesn't get to the heart of how we defend Canada.