Mr. Speaker, it takes a certain temerity for the parliamentary secretary to talk about respecting the military, because not the opposition parties but Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden himself, who is the commander of the Canadian navy, has sent out the orders and they are being implemented.
Canadian sailors are indeed the best in the world, and all they got from the current government on their centennial was a new curl on their uniforms.
The commander of the navy has said, and I quote, “The budget cutbacks led to the grounding of half the fleet”.
Has the quagmire in Afghanistan consumed so many resources that now the Conservatives have to cut back the navy to shove more money into the Kandahar money pit?