Mr. Speaker, perhaps I might even be directly responsible for the member being here. My father served, and served well, in Holland in the second world war. Perhaps his activities were involved. I was not even a glimmer or a thought at that time, so I could not verify that issue.
With regard to the military, I suppose we could all go back 10, 15, 20 and 30 years and shed blame on who said what or why should we do which. The fact remains that we have to deal with the realities of now. We have to deal with the realities of tomorrow.
When I take a look, I can go back and say that the hon. member's party has been almost dedicated to eliminating the military on many occasions. I am not particularly happy with that frame. Perhaps now we are around to a different line of thinking. If we are, I would certainly welcome some good communication back and forth.
However, I believe we can communicate well on a friendly basis and we can exchange ideas and articulate positions if we have a level of communication established. However, if there is no level of communication established because there is no respect for another position, then nothing gets accomplished.
I respect the member's position and I hope the respects mine, but we have to carry that forward to our international partners. We cannot do it by sticking a finger in our eye and saying that we now want to talk.