Mr. Chair, I will answer my colleague as though I were in the U.S. Congress tonight; I will say the same thing.
I will give this speech in Canada while Quebec is still a part of Canada because the government wants to copy exactly what the U.S. wants to do. That is what the Canadian government wants to do. It wants to adopt the same attitude that the U.S. government has because it thinks it will get closer to the United States with this type of issue, but that is absolutely not true.
Does Canada currently wield a lot of control within Norad? No, the U.S. controls 90% of Norad leaving a measly 10% to show the international community that they have left something for the Canadians.
The truth is, everyone knows that the U.S. controls Norad. It is unlikely that if a Canadian general were to say at Norad that we do things differently that the U.S. would listen.
It is the same thing with the space shield. The U.S. will decide because they know they are powerful. Moreover, Canada's contribution will be no different than that of the U.S. If we could have stepped back and said things are going too fast, we will wait, this would have been more consistent with Canadian policy. That could have provided much greater dividends for Canada internationally than saying that from now on we will follow the U.S. on military matters.
In my view, that is the fundamental issue and they are going to miss the boat.