Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague, the Minister of National Defence, for his remarks in the House today. I appreciated his strong words of support for the Royal Canadian Air Force and our Canadian Armed Forces, and also his words of strong support as a partner in the fight against ISIL as part of the international coalition.
When I hear some of my Conservative colleagues speak, the member for Parry Sound—Muskoka, for example, and others, it strikes me that they are posing a false choice. The false choice is either that Canada maintains its six CF-18s in Iraq and Syria, or, the Conservatives have used words like “not serious”, “not involved”, “backseat”. That is a false choice when there are other tools for contributing, as the minister has mentioned.
Could the minister comment on the message to the Canadian army? What message might the army take away when the Conservative members consider only the involvement of the bombing sorties to be worthwhile and full participation in this fight against ISIS?