Mr. Speaker, governing in general by the federal Liberal government is finally being exposed as the disaster we have always known it to be. Now the Governor General herself, who personally fulfills her duties honourably, is being tainted with the Liberal broad brush of overspending and lack of focus.
The questionable direction given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs has cast a pall over her office. If the Minister of Foreign Affairs had been transparent last year at the launch of the 59-person circumpolar trot, the $5 million dollar travelogue would probably have been stopped in its tracks before the public got railroaded. However, as usual, we had to discover the true cost of this Liberal overrun after the fact.
While Canadian ranchers and grain farmers face extinction because of failed foreign trade negotiations with the United States and Japan and when our foreign policy on national defence underfunding raises questions among our NATO partners, it is not the time to waste money and credibility on questionable super sized foreign junkets.
It is time we had a government that got the country back on track with sound policy and respect for taxpayers dollars.