Mr. Speaker, Canada's commitment to NATO goes back many decades and we have certainly had our periods of greater influence in that organization.
The Minister of National Defence could probably answer this question in a much more definitive way, but my concern is that Canada's influence within that organization is not as great as it used to be. Unfortunately we are not always at the military negotiating table as we should be.
We have the opportunity, as a country, to be more influential, but there have been philosophical changes in the way this government looks at our military and its influence in the world. In fact, it is an influential entity. There is much more that we could offer and I would suggest that diminishes our influence within the NATO circles.