came, for a time, to resemble the county they served: two mutually resentful solitudes. Despite Cadieux's hopeful promise that he would not "divide the force on an unilingual or geographical basis," he had done so". Ultimately, Morton wrote "enforced bilingualism was necessary. It was also a success". By the 1990s, the journalist Jocelyn Coulon in his books and essays called the Canadian Forces one of the most successful examples of a truly bilingual institution in Canada. The focus of Mobile Command was set on peace missions as well as future conventional war in Europe. Equipment acquisitions such as the M113 APC and Leopard tank marked a modernization, as did the use of the Cougar and Grizzly AVGP in armoured reconnaissance and mechanized infantry roles. 1980s In 1984, the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney government won the general election. The Conservative platform promised to undo the neglect of the Trudeau years, but in office the Mulroney government was torn between increasing the military budget; patronage politics which committed the government to rewarding supporters with contracts, which often had no military justification;and a desire to balance the budget. Morton commented that Mulroney continued the Trudeau tradition of frequent rotation of defence ministers together with "handing the defence portfolio to weak or worn out ministers". In 1985, the Mulroney government restored the different uniforms of the Canadian Forces with the Mobile Command being allowed to wear tan brown uniforms to distinguish them from the Maritime Command and Air Command in a move that was widely welcomed by the rank and file. After Mulroney's first defence minister, Robert Coates, was forced to resign after it was revealed that he spent much of a trip to West Germany visiting strip clubs, he was replaced by Erik Nielsen, a Second World War veteran and a "tough political insider with plenty of experience" who also served as deputy prime minister. Neilson was an articulate advocate for the Canadian Forces within the cabinet and was able to increase the military budget with the Canadian brigade in West Germany that had been under-strength ever since 1969 finally brought up to full strength. In 1985, the United States sent an icebreaker through the Northwest Passage without Canadian permission, which first awakened interests in Ottawa about the need to safeguard Canada's claims to Arctic sovereignty A wargame was held in 1986 where the Canadian Air-Sea Transportable Brigade Group (CAST) was ordered