Mr. Chair, this is a very emotional debate for me personally. I am of eastern European descent. My father was born in Czechoslovakia, my mother was born in Poland, and I remember the Prague Spring of 1968. I remember being a young Czech lad in Winnipeg. My father being the treasurer of the Czecho-Slovak Benevolent Association, we hosted Czech refugees in Winnipeg when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia.
Of course, since I was a teenager at the time, the import of this and how important it was really did not sink in. It is only now, as one of the two people of Czech extraction ever to be in the Canadian Parliament, I realize what a significant event that was.
From that point on, tyranny was something that I abhorred and freedom was something that I revered.
When I look at what has happened to Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the Velvet Divorce, and I look at Poland, and I remember that half of the Berlin Wall fell, I see that two and then three countries managed that transition very well. Those three countries are now functioning democracies. They have their issues and their problems, but they are run by the rule of law and democracy.
I visited the Czech Republic a couple of years ago. I was struck by the progress that country has made. It has joined the European family, joined the democratic world, joined with participating in free trade and free markets. The Czech Republic's technology is remarkable, and Slovakia is now the European leader in automobile production per capita, which is something that I did not know.
Therefore, when I look at the success of those three countries, I ask myself what happened to Ukraine. Why has Ukraine devolved into what it is now?
It is not that the people are not innovative. It is not that the people are not productive. It is not that the land is not productive. It is not that there are no energy resources. Ukraine has everything to make itself a successful and functioning democracy.
I should make the point of how proud I am as a member of this particular Conservative caucus to have people like the member for Mississauga East—Cooksville, who fought with Solidarity in Poland, and the member for Etobicoke Centre, who fought in Bosnia against tyranny. That is a track record this side of the House has that few others have. I am very proud to be part of a caucus with those two individuals and others.
I must say that I listened to the other side. As a person of east European background, I hear their fine words. They all sound good. However, people on that particular side of the political spectrum were the enablers of Communism for all those many years. They had writers like Walter Duranty lauding Stalin.
I may believe that the other side now has had a change of heart, but deep down inside I am suspicious. They have a lot to atone for and they have not atoned for it.
I think they are just riding on the coattails of this issue. I am happy to have their support, and it all sounds good, but they need to look at their heart of hearts and search where they and their parties came from. They need to think about it.
The promise of Ukraine is, as I said, remarkable. It has the land, it has the energy, it has the resources, but because of where it is located and because of its proximity to Russia, it is, as the saying goes, caught between a rock and a hard place. The tragedy, quite frankly, is epic.
My constituency has the largest population of Ukrainians in Canada. They make up roughly 35% of my constituency. When I look at what the Ukrainians in my constituency have done, it is truly remarkable. They are successful farmers, successful small business people. We have lovingly maintained churches that maintain the Ukrainian culture. In the Ukrainian museums in my constituency, the poems of Taras Shevchenko still resonate among the people there.
There are monuments to the Holodomor, the grotesque villainy that was visited upon Ukraine by Stalin.
Again, I look at Ukraine. I am very proud of the Conservative government and our Prime Minister. I am very proud of the fight that the Ukrainian people are fighting right now. Ukraine needs to belong to Europe.