In its early years the Harper Conservative government was committed to rebuilding the Canadian Forces after the Liberal “decade of darkness.” Then the Great Recession hit, the Afghanistan War ended, and defence procurement spending went dark, again. It’s unlikely to be revived in an election year, writes Jeffrey F. Collins, but it must and eventually will be, with a new emphasis on navy and air force hardware to meet the new challenges and priorities of global security in today’s post-“boots on the ground” environment.