Mr. Speaker, three years ago we had more than 4,300 Canadian troops committed abroad. They were stationed in the former Yugoslavia, Cyprus and so on. At this very moment we have about 2,000 troops in Bosnia, Haiti and Africa. This is less than half the amount of people who were committed three years ago.
I have been informed by the Minister of National Defence that to commit more troops to Africa at this time is not outside the capacity of the military. In all the discussions we have had, the Canadian military is very well respected around the world. I was very confident in asking it to take the lead and go to Zaire.