Canada's Type 26 is called a destroyer because of role and tradition

Is Canada weaponizing the term destroyer when it applies it to the new Type 26-based combatant?

The label reflects the ship's intended mission and Canadian destroyer tradition, though its size alone does not make it a fundamentally different vessel.

The Canadian Type 26 derivative is defended as a destroyer on the basis of its mission profile and the Canadian Navy's destroyer tradition. In this assessment, it is still not equivalent to a modern Tribal class. The Canadian design is described as only about a metre longer than the British variant, despite the availability of a larger Type 26 option. That small dimensional difference provides little basis for arguing that the ships belong to fundamentally different categories. The intended mission and service tradition explain the designation more clearly.