Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for a reasonable question and an accurate quote. However, I am afraid that my colleague is premature in anticipating that the fight against Daesh is going to be achieved any time in the near future. There is a great deal of heavy lifting in this combat mission yet to come. There are economic sanctions yet to be applied against those who are enabling the ISIS forces to get oil onto the international market to fund their terrorist operations.
My colleague is quite right in saying that conditions on the ground can change with the turn of the wheel, which is why we believe that a balanced contribution to the coalition mission in the war against Daesh requires participation in all aspects: in the air and on the ground.
Certainly our thanks bears repeating once again, as we have offered in retrospect, to those who have flown the CF-18 mission. There were 1,378 missions over two years; 251 successful air strikes; 399 targets destroyed; and the recognition by our coalition partners in the air war that Canadians have flown with great courage and skill and, as my colleague from Calgary mentioned earlier, without civilian casualty.