Madam Speaker, I was following attentively the comments made by our colleague from the Alliance Party. He said the first job of a nation is to defend itself.
Let us be reasonable. Canada is a huge country, the second largest land mass in the world. Our population is 31 million maximum. How does the member suggest that we defend this huge land militarily? We could draft every other person and I do not think there would be enough soldiers in the country to defend Canada's land mass.
As my colleague mentioned, the only enemy we have is nature. The country from coast to coast is about 5,500 kilometres and north to south it is about 4,800 kilometres. How much money can we pour into the system to defend this land mass which is impossible to defend?
If the member has suggestions besides saying increase the money, throw the money to the military, perhaps he could make them so people could hear how he proposes to defend the land mass.