Mr. Speaker, the government's treatment of the Canadian military is disgraceful. Year after year the Liberal government has used the Canadian military as its whipping boy. When there were cuts to be made to budgets, the first place it went was to the military. The military has been cut to the bone to the point where our soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan in forest green uniforms because the sand coloured uniforms appropriate for use in a place like Afghanistan have been sold off. There are so many examples of how we have shortchanged our military that a book could be written about them, in fact, many books have already been written.
As I said earlier, the first and most important role of any government is to provide security for its citizens. We cannot have all the freedoms that we enjoy unless we have that kind of security, and it manifests itself in many ways. One of them is in the form of a strong Canadian military.
I find it ironic that the government and many of its members who complain about a lack of sovereignty when it comes to Canada, and being so close to the United States, are content to free ride on the Americans for our defence. That is what happens so often with this government. The Liberals should be ashamed of their record when it comes to the military.