Mr. Speaker, I have to give the hon. member credit for her continuing attack on the so-called decade of darkness. She has a talent for non-sequiturs that is really quite breath defying.
The member started out by saying that they are proud of our military history. Of course, we are all proud of our military history. She said that the Liberal budget is a deceitful betrayal. We have jumped from being proud of our military history to the Liberal budget being a deceitful betrayal. There are no facts to actually support anything having to do with the proud military history or the concept of a deceitful betrayal.
The member said that the Liberal defence review is a shameful attempt to cover up the disdain of the Liberals. I have not even gotten off the ground with respect to the defence review. We have not had one in 20 years. Maybe it is just a basic good idea to start with finding out what the people of Canada want from their military. It is, after all, a massive operation. It is an $18.6 billion operation. More than 100,000 people work for DND. It has the sixth-largest budget in Canada, after the federal government and the top four provinces. It is a massive operation, yet the Conservatives say to just keep on doing what they were doing.
What they were doing during that last 10 years, that so-called decade of enlightenment, was melting down the previous budget by $3.3 billion over four years. They never actually got to the point of acquiring the equipment the men and women actually needed. The replacement for the ships is having to be rescued by our government. We are having a go at the jets, because the Conservatives did not get the jets done. There is a whole raft of procurements that have yet to be dealt with, and there were the last 10 years in which to deal with them.
As I say, it is a collection of non-sequiturs. If we actually raise some inconvenient fact, such as what happened in the last four years, the contraction of the budget over the last four years, that had to do with adding to the national debt by $150 billion. Someone had to pay for that. The biggest program spending in the Government of Canada, of course, is DND, and DND had to contribute its share to the deficit-reduction program created in the first place by the mismanagement by the Conservatives.
I just want to point out that with respect to the defence review, it is an important initiative on the part of this government. It is rather important that we as politicians, we as ministers, we as members of the government, ask Canadians what they want out of their military. What is it they are prepared to spend? There are all kinds of threats out there. Our first and foremost defence is the defence of Canada. Second is the defence of North America, and of course, all of that is interwoven with a variety of expeditionary missions that require our presence, whether they are NATO missions or UN-mandated missions.
This is a massive operation and is something Canadians need. We are hardly showing disdain for Canadians. Rather, we are appreciating that Canadians should have a lot to say about their own military.