Mr. Speaker, during all of my time here, this is the first time I have seen a Prime Minister propose a vote and then say that, if the outcome is not what he had hoped, he would not respect the vote.
Actually, this is the second time I have seen this. I watched as Prime Minister Jean Chrétien called a vote on an agreement, the Kyoto protocol, but that was unusual. I must hand it to the current Prime Minister: calling a vote on a decision to send troops overseas or on an international agreement at least marks an improvement over the previous Liberal governments, which refused to allow the House to vote on such issues. I give the current Prime Minister credit for this.
In my opinion, the much wiser decision would be to follow our proposal. I do not see why the government will not agree to the request of the Standing Committee on National Defence to revisit the questions raised by the current defence minister here in this House on November 15, 2005 and give him the opportunity to answer those questions himself. We would then return here and, based on his answers, make an informed decision about whether to extend the mission. However, we need more information. I see nothing wrong with asking the same questions as the current minister did in the past.