Madam Chairman, we are a prisoner of our own symbolism. The current Prime Minister is fond of recalling that he got his name as a novice member of parliament by moving a private member's bill that renamed the national airline carrier Air Canada. Since that time, Air Canada's jets have been like emissaries of the country worldwide. They are seen in airports everywhere and they say Canada. The reality is that no major nation in the G-7 can afford not to have a national airline and not to have a national air carrier whose planes are shown in the airports of the world.
It is more than just a symbolic thing. Symbols have a powerful impact on people's imaginations and the way they interact with one another. The Air Canada symbol helps us in world trade. It helps us in selling ourselves as a nation across the world. That may be small in numbers, but large in heart, large in expertise, large in much of what we have to offer to the world. Therefore, I do not feel that we really have any choice but to rescue Air Canada. We have gone far enough, shall we say, in losing Canadian but we certainly, as a nation, cannot lose our airline symbol.
There is a second reason why the government is obligated to rescue Air Canada. I speak of Air Canada and not the other airlines, even though I think that they would be entitled to claim help as well. We have to rescue Air Canada because the government, for the right reasons or the wrong reasons depending on how we look at it, is responsible for putting Air Canada in the very difficult position that it finds itself in the wake of this crisis.
What should have actually happened when Canadian was having difficulty, was market forces should have been allowed to operate and Canadian should have gone under. The government instead, wishing to protect the jobs of Canadian airline employees, forced Air Canada, indirectly perhaps, to undertake a merger.
Indeed, those of us who have some knowledge of how business operates would have argued very strongly that the better thing for Air Canada and the airline industry would have been to let the market forces have their way. That is a terribly harsh thing to say when we are talking about people's jobs and livelihoods. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Air Canada is less able to withstand the events of September 11, because of the fact that it acquired Canadian, than it would have been if Canadian had been allowed to perish economically, as would normally happen.
To me the question of rescuing Air Canada is academic. How we do it is the subject of other people's speeches here. I feel very strongly that what is more effective than any rescue or any valid bailout, is to get the passengers back on Air Canada, get the travelling public back up in the air. I am concerned because the government has been very unwilling to take a position on airline security.
Some of the debate tonight was about the fact the government would bring in better technology to beef up security at airports, bomb sniffing machines and that kind of thing. However, the tragedy that occurred on September 11 and the reason why people are not flying is not because of airport security. It is aircraft security that has everyone frightened. Nothing changed on September 11 with respect to airport security. Airports have always been at risk by terrorists.
It goes back to the bombings of which I think the first was 1968. It was an airplane hijacking but not with the intent of a suicide flight into a ground target. In imaginations of people, they have this picture about what must have occurred on these aircrafts when people realized they were destined on a suicide mission. That is quite different than a normal hijacking where people on the aircraft might have had some hope of survival.
Actually I have nightmares about this. I think people across the land and across North America, if not the world, occasionally have dreams of this horrible situation in which they find themselves trapped in an aircraft that is on a mission of destruction and death.
If the government wants to get people flying again, it needs to take a strong line on aircraft security as soon as possible. The reality is Madam Speaker, that the Americans have moved very quickly in this regard. We cannot, as a country with a national carrier, not follow suit.
I was watching the news this evening and Peter Jennings was interviewing various people who were talking about the fact that Washington national airport will not open until it gets sky marshals in place and gets various other security provisions in place. The reality is that if the Americans do that with their aircraft, it is extremely unlikely, as a matter of fact it is not likely at all, that American aircraft flying out of Canada will not have sky marshals on them when they go to the United States. Similarly, it is extremely unlikely that the Americans will allow Air Canada aircraft to land in Washington or New York unless they have an equivalent level of security. I suggest that equivalent level of security would be sky marshals.
Some members on the opposite side, and on this side for that matter, might find it extremely hard to hear me, of all people, talking about the idea that our airlines should carry armed guards because I deplore the free use of firearms. I am not a hunter and I have no argument against hunters. However I certainly have a very large argument against the proliferation of weapons in the United States in the possession of civilians.
In this instance, if we are going to get Canadians back on to Air Canada as quickly as possible, we have to make a strong statement that at least for the short term until other security measures are in place that are just as strong, we have to do it. If we do not do it, I can assure the House that in my area of the province of Ontario people will simply go to Buffalo if they feel they can get an airplane that is safer. I do not think the government will have any choice because if the Americans bring in this level of security, Air Canada and any other carrier going into the United States from Canada will have to follow suit.
One might ask why the transport minister has not come out with this decision if it is so logical? I would suggest that it is one of the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian parliamentary and cabinet system that this country, because of the cabinet system, can act very decisively. Once a decision is made in cabinet things move very quickly. On the other hand, to make sure that ministers do not go on expeditions solo, usually when there is the necessity of making a very important decision in their portfolios, they seek cabinet consensus. I would suggest to the House that when cabinet meets tomorrow this very subject of the security of aircraft will be high on the agenda.
It is certainly a very serious thing we have been faced with as a result of the terrible tragedy in New York. However the last thing we, as Canada, want to do to give any support to these terrorists, is to allow Air Canada to crash as a result of a terrorist act by these extreme groups like we saw in New York. Air Canada is a symbol of Canada. We have to maintain that symbol one way or another. If it involves a rescue package that is one thing. If it involves peace and security that is another. One way or another we have to preserve Air Canada.