Madam Speaker, in so many ways the member is wrong. In fact, in listening to him I thought maybe he grabbed the wrong speaking notes. It sounds more like a Conservative speech than a Bloc party speech, which emphasizes the degree to which the Bloc have fallen into the gutter with the Conservatives on this issue.
Let me quote Brigadier-General David Fraser, who was in charge of NATO's regional command in Afghanistan, referring to the Minister of National Defence in 2006:
He tirelessly and selflessly devoted himself to piecing together the ground truth on tribal and Taliban networks in the Kandahar area, and his analysis was so compelling that it drove a number of large scale theatre-resourced efforts, including Operation Medusa, a large scale conventional combat operation that resulted in the defeat of the largest TB cell yet identified in Afghanistan, with over 1500 Taliban killed or captured. I rate him as one of the best intelligence officers I have ever worked with—fearless, smart, and personable—and I would not hesitate to have him on my staff at any time in the future.
The Conservatives and the Bloc are all about character assassination, and I say shame on both those political parties. I would ask the member this: Would he apply to the leader of the official opposition the very same principles that he is applying in this situation?