Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to my colleague Keith Martin and to the chair of the committee for reviewing this, and to the officials. I had hoped to have a question for my colleagues Alan Tonks and Judy Sgro, but there may not be sufficient time.
First of all, I'm glad to see that we're party now to the international contact group, but as you pointed out, we have a very special relationship in Canada with Somalia. We have the largest Somali diaspora. I'm told that the largest community from Africa in Canada is from Somalia. And if you look long term, there are many ways that we could work with Somalia, with their natural resources and in economic terms as well, but I realize that's some ways away.
We know that Somalia is a failed state. I'd like to suggest that our “watching brief” strategy of the federal government, if I could call it that, is a failed strategy.
If we go back to the first transitional national government many years ago, it seems to me there was an opportunity there for the world and Canada as a player to offer some tangible support to that first government. It was not perfect. You know, neither was the second government. And there's always this concern that we're waiting for the perfect solution, the elegant government, and there's concern about warlords and representation. I don't think in that part of the world it's going to happen. Somalia, hopefully, will get its act together and have another government, and what we should be doing in Canada, in the western world, is showing some tangible support early for that new government so that the people can see that there's a reason to proceed.
If we all stand by and take a watching brief, we know we're doomed to failure.
Alan, do you have a question?