Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether it is a new-found commitment to the military on the part of the party across the way. Obviously the $13 billion put forward in the budget is significant.
I would encourage the member to pick up the book by Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil . It is an interesting read. On page 38 he speaks about the cuts that took place in the late 1980s under the Conservative government. He talks about the drop in morale. He said:
I had never seen morale drop so fast and so violently in a group of experienced officers as it did on that day in March 1987.
He was reflecting on when Perrin Beatty, the then minister of national defence, brought forward a budget and his document on national defence.
--Beatty tabled a toothless and even hypocritical document. Over the next two years, the Conservatives hacked and slashed what was left of our acquisition programs. I finally left Ottawa in disgust in the summer of 1989.
Short memories maybe, but if we think back to when the budget document was tabled, all Canadians will remember the $13 billion that was invested in our military, the greatest and most significant investment in the military over the last 20 years.