Mr. Speaker, let us make it clear right now that no matter how the vote goes tonight, all members of Parliament support our brave men and women in Afghanistan in the work that they are doing.
I have a question for the member. Has he ever seen such a shameful affront to Parliament? I respect the Prime Minister as a long standing parliamentarian, but has the member ever seen a prime minister put a motion before the House and then in his speech say the government would not necessarily follow the results of the vote and might do the exact opposite? He said the government would extend the mission anyway, regardless of the vote.
Did he not in his speech with this new information, which was a surprise and an affront to Parliament, make it hard to vote yes? What he basically said in his speech was that the mission was going to be extended for one year and eight months from today, if the House votes no. How could any member of Parliament vote yes when a no vote would mean we are extending the mission for one year and eight months from today? To vote yes would mean two years and eight months.
Why would even the Conservatives not vote for a motion that says we are going to extend the mission to one year and eight months? By voting no today we could re-evaluate and decide whether to go forward. The best vote would be no.