Mr. Speaker, an Afghan I spoke to last week in Kandahar said, “We have made a lot of progress in the past few years, and with your help, we can succeed. If you leave, we will have to start all over again.”
I saw our Canadian troops, men and women who have bravely travelled to the far reaches of the world to lend the Afghan people a helping hand. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters have left their loved ones to secure an area marked by years of conflict, to help the Afghan people take charge of their own future and live in safety.
The road is long and difficult. Without our support and the help of the 36 coalition countries, Afghans will return to the middle ages and a regime of terror that has already begun to spread to North America.
Today, I pay homage to the courage of the civilian and military personnel who are risking their lives to defend peace in Afghanistan. They fill me with pride. To me, they are true Canadian heroes.