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ARTICLE · 28 APRIL 2025

Canadian Defence In Transition: An Interview With Dr. David Perry On Strategy And Spending

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Arbitration and commercial litigation partner, Thomas Yates, interviews Dr. David Perry, President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute regarding future defence policy.

CanadaGovernment, Public Sector
Thomas Yates
Thomas Yates
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This article appeared in our Defence Forecast 2025 guide, which highlights the hot topics impacting Canada's aerospace and defence industries. Read the Forecast here.

Arbitration and commercial litigation partner, Thomas Yates, interviews Dr. David Perry, President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute regarding future defence policy.

This interview took place on February 6, 2025, and has been edited for length and clarity.

TY:There has been a change of Prime Minister this year and potentially a change of government. Do you see this as having any meaningful impact in terms of defence strategy or spending?

DP: On spending, I think all the gyrations politically and Canada domestically mean that even the existing spending plans for national defence have an extra layer of uncertainty. Existing plans are that national defence is supposed to have a roughly 33 per cent increase in spending for the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2025. But some of the

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