Madam Speaker, this is an important motion and discussion that the NDP has brought forward today, and I would like to thank the member for North Island—Powell River for doing so.
The member referenced Conservatives and veterans, and I wanted to put on the record what the terrible Harper regime did to veterans. It was the most disrespectful period in our nation's history. The Harper Conservatives slashed personnel and eliminated hundreds of positions. They closed district offices, forcing veterans, often with disabilities, to travel across provinces to try to get the services that were systematically being denied by the Harper regime. They denied disability benefits, and perhaps in one of the most cruel examples of disrespect by Conservatives of our nation's veterans, they denied 20,000 funerals for veterans. They were people who had laid their lives on the line for this country, and Conservatives treated them in the most disrespectful, dishonouring way possible.
Will a single Conservative member stand and apologize for the despicable treatment of our nation's veterans—