Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here today.
I would be remiss not to mention that today is Memorial Day in the United States, honouring the brave men and women who serve their country. We have over 700 Canadians currently posted in the United States, and we work shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues and allies through NORAD in the defence of North America. I'll just a comment on that.
I'll start with Professor Leuprecht.
You asked, how does this help Canada to deter and how does this help Canada fight? We heard today about the urgency in a wartime footing and so on and so forth, but if we were to look at where Canadians were even two or three years ago, I don't think Canadians were prepared for Canada to invest 2% of GDP. That has changed, obviously, with geopolitical realities around the world. We need to take politics out of this, and I think all of the people at this committee are in agreement that we need to increase our defence spending. We need to make sure that the Canadian Armed Forces have the equipment they need.
How do we help Canadians understand the realities we are facing with that urgency you're mentioning? I know that Professor Huebert mentioned the same thing. I'll ask both of you this: How do we get Canadians where we need them to be so they can see that the urgency you're referring to is real and we need to move quickly?