Mr. Speaker, that is not entirely true. We were involved in the program. We were not down there doing the nuts and bolts. Canada has been playing an increasingly active role in the program over the past years.
Mr. Williams also said when that was announced that national defence was thrilled, because it knew this would be a program that Canada could participate in and eventually replace our aircraft with.
We talk about commitment versus intent. The intent was clearly to replace the CF-18 with a next generation fighter capability. We were clearly part of that program in 1997 at whatever level. We had an increasing level in 2002 and a further increased level in 2006. We have finally come to the point that the Liberals started us on with the intent to acquire another airplane.
The whole premise behind the CF-18 program in the first place was to replace it sometime around now. We are a few years late, but we are getting it done. We are getting it done.