Mr. Speaker, just to be very clear, the Liberal Party of Canada has never been opposed to deploying our armed forces for combat when it clearly serves Canada's national interest.
Military missions designed to uphold that interest must have transparent objectives and a responsible plan to achieve them. To give an example, Canada has a clear interest in training Iraqi forces to fight and destroy ISIL. We can and should do this training away from the front lines, as our allies have been doing. That is an example of the type of thing Canada can excel in. There is no doubt about that, and Canadians as a whole would support that sort of action.
What the government does not seem to recognize is that it has not been straightforward with Canadians. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister explain to the House why, for example, the Prime Minister was evasive on the issue of the original combat role Canadian soldiers were going to be putting themselves into? At one point he said no, and then we—