Mr. Chairman, I had not intended to speak tonight as I spoke on Monday night. However, after sitting in and listening to the debate, this is an opportunity for us to gather as a family in the House to hear one another's reflections on this very important matter. However, I thought this debate was to be about what message we would like the Prime Minister to carry on behalf of the people of Canada to the president of the United States.
I had the opportunity of hearing the president speak this evening, like many members of the House. I was impressed by his words and by the extraordinary enthusiasm expressed by our colleagues, the members of congress, senators and congressmen. Many are personally known by the members of this House. We have worked with them, and respect them. We have looked to them for their wisdom to help resolve what is an extraordinary, complicated and difficult issue for us all to deal with.
I did not think that the debate tonight would be as partisan as it has been. I am disappointed by some of the remarks from my colleagues across the floor who have chosen to speak about the inadequacies of the policies of the government rather than what message the Prime Minister should be taking to the president of the United States.
I agree with my colleagues across the floor, particularly my colleague who spoke so eloquently about her riding, which is linked to that of the United States. This may be of some amusement to members of the House, but in some respects my riding of Toronto Centre--Rosedale is also a border riding. It is on Lake Ontario and across the lake is Rochester. I have as much a border riding as many others.
I agree with all members of the House that the first message that we want the Prime Minister to take to the president of the United States is that we are a North American family. First and foremost that is what we are.
My mother was American and my father Canadian. If things had been different, I would have been on the other side of the border. I might have been in that other house, if I had been lucky enough to be elected by my citizens to represent them, as I consider it the greatest privilege of my life to represent the citizens of my riding in this House.
We are a family. As members of a family, we have a right to speak frankly to the other members of the family and tell them what we believe and how we want them to behave.
I listened to the president of the United States tonight and I was impressed by his sincerity and determination to deal with the immediate causes of terrorism. I am impressed by the statements of determination expressed by my colleagues from the other side to ensure that our society will be protected by strengthening our systems of defence, our police forces and our immigration policies.
I call upon all members to be loyal and to stand shoulder to shoulder and support the United States at this time. If we do not support the United States, we are not supporting ourselves because we are all under attack. As the president stated tonight in his speech before congress, some 60 nations of peoples were represented in that building that was attacked. As stated by my colleague from Mount Royal, all humanity was attacked in those buildings.
What are we as members of the House trying to come to grips with? How do we extend beyond the immediacy of the message that we must deal with this and talk to what is the only superpower in the world, the greatest power on the face of the planet? The United States clearly has the military power to annihilate any enemy of any kind. There is no question about that.
I listened to an American admiral on television this morning. He was a very wise man who said there was no military response to the issue. He said there is only a limited military capability to deal with terrorism because terrorists disappear into the night.
This is a personal reflection, but I read with interest an article my son wrote on the front page of this morning's National Post about consultations he had with Mr. bin Laden's people in Pakistan.
My son happens to be in Pakistan. I am concerned about him. Anybody would be whose own flesh and blood was on the frontline in these circumstances. He is there because he believes that in a free and democratic society he has a duty to write about the complexities of the issues and allow our citizens to understand what they are about.
They are not just about immediate strikes because, as we read in his article, Mr. bin Laden, the rebels, the terrorists and the people of Afghanistan have many caves they can go into.
As the admiral said on television this morning, we do not have the immediate technical information or intelligence to know exactly where to strike. My colleague the defence critic, whom I respect a great deal, knows that as well as I do.
It is not an immediate strike that we need to tell our American colleagues about. They know how to do that. They have a greater intelligence and military capacity than we do. They are the greatest power in the world.
The message our Prime Minister needs to convey to the U.S. president is the one he gave to the House when we had this debate on Monday. He said we must have a commitment to do in the long run that which will be effective, not to do in the short run that which will give us a sense we have accomplished something but which would in reality be counterproductive.
That is what we are here tonight to debate. That is why I was so pleased to sit and listen to the debate by my colleague from Mount Royal, a gentleman who has spent his life in academics as well as practical law. He is a learned person known for his interest in human rights throughout the world. As many in the House may know, he has argued in favour of the Palestinians in the Israeli supreme court. He set out for us tonight a vision of a world governed by laws and not by violence, a world in which we could maintain the rule of law together.
Our Prime Minister owes it to the Canadian people not only to go to the president of the United States and say “yes, we are with you”, as is suggested by our colleagues in the Alliance. I would ask our colleagues in the Alliance not to tell the Prime Minister to go to the president of the United States and say that we are inadequate and have not done enough. That is untrue and unfair, and it is partisanship at a time when it is inappropriate to be partisan.
We owe it to our colleagues and fellow citizens to urge the Prime Minister to take to the president of the United States a vision of a world which is multilateral, a world in which the United States could be not only the strongest power in the world but a true beacon of liberty.
In this vision the U.S. could share its advantages with the world and help enrich it. It would not just destroy the civilizations of its enemies but share with them the wealth it has been able to create. It could help make a better world in which all could participate.
Surely that is what Canada is all about. The other day I went to the local mosque in my riding. Somali people and Muslims from all over were there. Many came to up me and said their identity was Canadian. Many such young people have come to me and said they believed they were Canadians and that we were creating, at least in Toronto which is the area I know, a tolerant society that was multicultural, multifaceted and multidimensional.
Surely at this time of crisis we need to listen to the voices of people who tell us that the world and its problems are multifaceted and multidimensional and require a multilateral and sophisticated approach.
My colleagues in the Alliance and I need to strengthen our defences. Yes, we must stand clearly against terrorism. However, we must surely go beyond that. We must reach out to others. We must create conditions in the world where terrorism will be defeated not because people have been killed but because people realized a better life was available to them. That is what I want our Prime Minister to say when he talks to the president of the United States.