Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for the member for Westmount—Ville-Marie. There are different kinds of members in the House. Some are career MPs, while others come here after a brilliant career. I have to say, in all seriousness, that our colleague has had an admirable international career in the space program.
However, in his speech, he did say a number of things that were not true, such as when he said it was more expensive and more problematic. Clearly, the financial system is not his area of expertise, but he went on to answer questions. It was a fairly balanced speech.
I have just one question for him, and it has to do with his career and mine. What would he have said if, when humankind began to conquer space, the Americans had told Canada that because there was so much at stake, they were going to control everything. I am sure he would have stood up for the Canadian Space Agency as a Canadian institution and made a case for its competence. I am making a case for our competence just as he would have done for the agency.