Picking up on what the admiral said, as Canadians we want to matter. We want to matter both at home and abroad. My experience is that we do, when we're there. To throw it back to government, because of the funding level, we're not able to sustain the kind of presence that I think Canadians want us to sustain abroad, whether we're alongside in a port in a diplomatic mission, flying a large Canadian ensign, or whether we're sitting, as the admiral suggested, a little over 12 miles off somebody's coast in something which is a little more significant. We want to matter, and you matter by having the vessels and having the people flying the flag.
On October 18th, 2016. See this statement in context.