Madam Speaker, we do not need lessons from the Conservatives on defence and defence procurement and respect for our troops. They had a former minister chased down the hall by a veteran's widow.
Now, today, there a defence white paper, “Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada's Defence Policy”, with a fully costed $62-billion plan to put planes in the sky, to put boats in the water, and to equip our men and women in uniform with the materiel, the very equipment that was denied to them for 10 long, lonely, dark years of the Harper administration.
It is ironic to watch members over there twist themselves in knots, saying that we are spending too much, and then waking up and suggesting that we should spend the billions of dollars that they did not spend on defence procurement during their 10 long, sad years in office.
What we have now is a plan to put planes in the air, a plan to christen and send boats out to sea, and a plan to maintain and upgrade the equipment of our men and women in uniform. How could the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke have missed that this is the biggest-spending defence budget in the history of Canada?