Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for her comments, and indeed, for making the point that this is a Canadian response and a pan-partisan response to a tragedy.
The parliamentary secretary made reference to the fact that quite often in the House it is a matter of charged party politics, and one area the two parties might have some differences on is the whole question of the core purpose of the military. I am wondering whether the experience of how well our DART teams have performed might cause us, as parliamentarians in general, to reflect on whether the whole question of emergency response and response to natural disasters is something we should consider deepening and making even more central to the very core of what our armed forces are capable of doing around the world. There would be a good deal of self-interest in that too, because we can help around the world, but we know we are also vulnerable. The more we are ready to respond to what might happen here, the more it makes sense to be developing that capacity, let us call it a specialty, around the globe.
I am wondering if there is anything in what I have said that might appeal to the government benches in terms of the future development of the armed forces.