For a small Canadian defence company, the Pentagon’s decision in May was clarifying. On May 18, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby announced that Washington was pausing its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, the 86-year-old advisory body that has coordinated continental defence since Franklin Roosevelt and Mackenzie King created it in 1940. He accused Canada of failing to make credible progress on its defence commitments.