Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to redress a question that I previously asked of the Minister of National Defence about a comment that he had made. He stated, in reference to the Canadian Armed Forces' mission in Afghanistan, that we do not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. I asked him whether he thought the entire mission in Afghanistan was a mistake.
Essentially, the Canadian Armed Forces did an outstanding job in the 10 years they were in theatre in Afghanistan, a mission that started under the Chrétien-Martin Liberal government, and continued and ended under the Conservative government. We know that in that process, 158 Canadians paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country and to the people of Afghanistan by ridding them of the evil that they had been subjected to by the Taliban.
There were some great accomplishments. Over four million children were able to go to school who had not been previously, and most of them were girls. The rights of women and girls increased after the Taliban were removed. The opportunities for education, hospital care, and medicines dramatically improved after the Taliban were removed from power. That is because of Canada and its allies being on the ground, carrying the fight to an organization that was brutal in its approach to its own people and a regime that supported a safe haven for the training of terrorists, particularly al Qaeda and the many crimes that they committed around the world, not just on 9/11.
The amazing thing is that Afghanistan has a vibrant democracy today, with successful presidential and legislative elections taking place. Maclean's magazine published the results of an Afghan opinion poll, which asked the following question. This is key. It asked if Afghans preferred the current government or the Taliban regime and 91% said that they supported the new government, fully 85% said living conditions had improved since the Taliban were removed, and 77% believed that the country was headed in the right direction.
That would not have been possible if not for the efforts of the brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces. They helped settle refugees. What they were able to do was amazing. I do not see this as being a mistake. I see this as being a success for the Canadian Armed Forces, a success for Canada, and the recipients of that success are the citizens of Afghanistan.
I would again say that I was disappointed with the minister's comments when he made that speech back in February. We have to remember that the regime in Afghanistan was awful. It was totalitarian. It was male chauvinist in nature. Women and girls were treated like commodities, and ultimately, we did the right thing in ending that safe haven for the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations.
Therefore, I thank every one of the 40,000 Canadians who served in Afghanistan.