Madam Speaker, I am afraid my friend betrays his ignorance. Ballistic missile defence has nothing to do with putting ballistic missiles in Canada, or for that matter in the United States. It has to do with defending against ballistic missiles from aggressive countries outside the North American continent. A cursory reading of the newspapers would reveal that to him.
When he says that we have not been at war in 200 years, perhaps he forgets the Korean war, the Persian Gulf war, World War I and World War II. Perhaps a reading of a history book would equip him as well.
Canada already works closely with the United States to protect the North American continent through Norad against air attack from unfriendly countries. That was especially necessary during the cold war. There is no question that to a big degree, now that relations have warmed with the former Soviet Union, now Russia, we do not face as big a threat but we still face a threat.
There are still concerns, for instance, about mainland China and the capacity that it has to deliver ICBMs to the North American continent. We have to worry about North Korea which is now developing a missile that can come close to reaching the North American continent.
Many people at Norad are very concerned about cruise missiles which could be delivered from ships off the North American continent that could carry nuclear warheads.
The idea is not to have ballistic missiles launched from North America to knock them down. That is not what we are talking about. We are talking about a missile defence shield that would use conventional missiles which do not have warheads on them but would simply run into other missiles coming our way. It is a dangerous world out there. After September 11, I am surprised my friend does not recognize it.