Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House today to thank the captain and crew of the HMCS Athabaskan for their warm welcome during my two day stay on board this week.
The HMCS Athabaskan , captained by Commander Denis Rouleau, is a 5,120 tonne Iroquois class destroyer which serves as the Atlantic task group command ship. It has an array of anti-missile defences, including state of the art SM-2 stand missiles. It can carry two Sea King helicopters, is a completely bilingual unit and can carry a crew of up to 280 souls.
The level of excellence, the level of professionalism, the level of general quality which emanates from the captain and crew is worthy of great pride and respect by all Canadians.
It is with great appreciation and pride that, if I were wearing one, I would take off my hat to HMCS Athabaskan today for a job well done.