Mr. Speaker, I am happy with my colleague’s question. First, it is the right question. He said that I am negative. They have a solution. It is war. We have a number of solutions. It is those other solutions that he does not want to hear. The other solution is a balanced mission, as the Manley report said. We did not appoint Mr. Manley and his team; they are the ones who did so. Mr. Manley said that it had to be rebalanced, which means going in with more resources for development, diplomacy and democracy.
In terms of democracy, I would note that in 2004, the election turnout was 75%. That is extraordinary. Everyone was overjoyed with it. People said it was a good sign, that the Afghans wanted to try out democracy. But I have the impression that the regime that is being installed has shut them out, because in the second election, two and a half years later, turnout was 30%. That is an extraordinary drop-off. Why did it occur? The Conservatives are so ideologically fixated on the war that it is all-out war. They ask us what we are proposing in return.
Where war becomes necessary, everyone must go to war and we agree with that. When the merits of going to war cannot be explained, we do not agree. There are alternatives such as helping these people with reconstruction, democracy and training.
I would remind the House that Canada has extraordinary expertise in reconstruction and leading peace missions, an expertise that is being wasted.