Mr. Speaker, I rise reluctantly simply because I cannot accept the unacceptable smear, the personal smear, that the member continues to engage in by calling our dignified Minister of National Defence, who has served for many years, an arms dealer. It is unacceptable.
Let me tell the member why we have to fund the military now. It is because over the past 13 years Liberal governments cut back resources to the Canadian Forces “because a philosophical choice was made to diminish the military's place in Canadian society”. Who said that? The Liberal Party's democratic society task force on the military. Its members said this themselves. That is why we now have to make up the funding for the shortfall and support our military.