Have you ever heard of the program called 60 Minutes? It is probably the most impactful documentary program in North America. A guy named Scott Pelley is a commentator. Scott was doing an interview with me. It was a 30-minute program just on Yemen.
I had known Scott. He had known me as a United States governor. At the end of the interview, we were taking down the microphones and Scott told me, right from the heart, that I have the greatest job on earth: saving people's lives. I agreed that I really do. It's absolutely remarkable. Then, I said I would tell him something that he hadn't thought of and it was going to bother him. He looked at me in bewilderment, wondering what that could be. I told him that I don't go to bed at night thinking about the children we saved. I go to bed at night weeping over the children we couldn't save because of a lack of money or a lack of access.
When you think that there's 300 trillion dollars' worth of wealth on earth today and that a single child goes to bed hungry, much less dies—every five seconds a child dies from hunger—it's unacceptable. When we don't have enough money, guess who has to decide who eats and who doesn't eat and who lives and who dies. I asked Scott how he would like to have that job. He looked at me and he said that he had never thought about that. I told him that we don't have a choice. We have to think about it and decide upon who eats and doesn't eat every day.
I don't want to say there's never enough money. We do need more money. We're so appreciative of what Canada has done, but as to the world's plight today, all nations need to step up more. If you don't, I think it's going to compound and it will cost you a hundred to a thousand times more. Thank you for what you're doing. We have more to do.
Let me say that it's not just about doing more. It's also about doing more strategically and effectively. I do think foreign aid and international organizations have learned a lot in the last 10, 20 or 30 years about the programs that aren't effective. Whether you're from the left or from the right, I think we all have an obligation to evaluate which programs are the most strategic, given that we have limited dollars. Where should they be most effectively placed?
We would love to see more money. We're appreciative of what we get. Let me leave it at that.