Mr. Speaker, the co-chairman of the Special Joint Committee on Canada's Defence Policy is quoted today in La Presse as saying that this department exists solely to show our solidarity with the rest of the planet.
In the report that came out Monday, he defended the idea of acquiring new equipment, the purpose of which would be to enable Canada to defend, at great expense, its territorial sovereignty.
It would certainly take mental gymnastics to be able to see how buying tanks, not to mention submarines, is a way of expressing solidarity with the planet. On the contrary, it merely confirms the militaristic doctrine that pervades the report.
My advice to the co-chairman is that he would do better to strengthen his solidarity with Quebec, which is in great need of support, particularly his, if it is to hang on to what little it receives from the Department of National Defence, the Liberal Party notwithstanding.