Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to mention that our previous party, one of our historic parties that came together with the Conservatives, the Reform party, when they were in opposition, started asking when the Liberal government of the day was going to start preparing and issue a white paper. I think that was as early as 1997.
So it's interesting that once we formed government, we did come out with the Canada first defence strategy, which is our white paper and an ongoing evolution. I know that the member is fairly new to this committee, but it was under the Liberal government that we started in the joint strike fighter program. So they initiated the process of Canada being a part of the whole F-35 research effort and what came afterwards.
Our witness mentioned the Arctic Council rotation. What I'm curious to know is how the eventual chairmanship of Russia may impact the defence of North America.