Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government is a fractured and fighting party. It cannot agree on who its leader is or should be, any more than it can agree on what its defence policy should be.
Last weekend's high comedy convention is reflected in the ongoing dispute between the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs who cannot seem to develop a coherent and consistent policy between them.
The foreign affairs minister's ill timed, immature and irrational attacks on the United States national missile defence system are a case in point.
While Canadian military planners recognize the need, indeed the necessity, of Canadian participation in this defence system, the foreign affairs minister continues to talk about star wars and American aggression all the while alienating and angering our closest ally. How can one man stand in the way of a defence system that is essential to North American security?
It is time for Canada to endorse the national missile defence system.