Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely not only to the speech of my Alliance colleague but also to his reply to the question from the PC/DR coalition defence critic.
The hon. member brought up the fact that our troops are going to Afghanistan with the wrong colour of uniforms. This is incredibly important to the point where one of my constituents from Dawson Creek, Mr. Lin Schaffer who fought in the second world war, wrote to me. He was concerned about two of his grandsons. They serve with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and will be going to Afghanistan. They will be wearing the wrong colour of uniform. Their lives will be at risk because of the inattention this government pays to the needs of the military.
As the hon. member mentioned, it is absolutely disgraceful and disgusting how the Liberal government has treated our military over the years.
In today's Ottawa Citizen I was amazed to find out that the defence minister, in reply to this very serious issue, said that the commanders had no problem with the uniforms. They think they can operate quite fine with them and that they will have an advantage at night time when many of their operations happen. In other words, the reply of the defence minister to this very serious issue is that our troops should only be allowed out at night. If that comment is not disgraceful, I do not know what is.
Would the member care to elaborate on this point?