The decision is the role of the executive. But a wise executive will go to Parliament and seek a vote in support of a deployment. I'm not talking about three officers to an observer force. I'm talking about a substantial deployment of a battalion or a battle group to some serious operation.
If you run into difficulties, as we have done in Afghanistan, it certainly helps enormously to be able to say to the Canadian public that Parliament has supported this mission. If you deploy troops and don't seek that kind of approval from the elected representatives of Canadians, then you are open to people asking, “Why are we there? Why are we sustaining these casualties?” It's much better to have support.
I also think we should have fixed withdrawal dates for operations, on the clear understanding.... The reality is that Parliament is supreme. It can change the withdrawal date if it chooses, as of course we did on the Afghan mission. I think that's entirely appropriate.