House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 67% of the vote.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the logic of Reform Party members is incredible. They stood here last night and told us to get out of there and basically gave us detailed plans for a retreat. Now the hon. member is asking for the application of air power.
I would like to ask him to please make up his mind and be consistent? At least the official opposition is consistent and we respect and are grateful for its support. However, let us have some consistency of opinion in this whole matter.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the hon. critic for the Reform Party is taking considerable licence with what I said last night.
When we talk about perhaps bringing the UNMOs out of exposed situations, that to me is good common sense. When we talk about concentration of troops as the Prime Minister has explained, this does not necessarily apply to Canada because our troops are reasonably well concentrated at our two posts at Kiseljak and Visoko. But it does make good sense for the UN to continue the mandate to have some concentration of its forces so there is less exposure.
I would like to take exception to what the hon. member has been saying in terms of the discharging of the mandate in Bosnia. The fact is that for most of the last three years those flights have operated with Canadian Hercules from Ancona to Sarajevo. That has been a lifeline which has kept those people fed. The other convoys have been getting through. Of course in the last couple of weeks things have been difficult, but the last couple of weeks does not tell the tale.
I continue to be completely surprised as to how members of his party stand in the House and offer a plan to retreat when they should be offering the Canadian people a plan to retrieve our peacekeepers.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, perhaps it says something about the state of the Reform Party that the hon. foreign affairs critic seems to know a lot about the science of retreat. Perhaps he would like to edify the House as to how that will apply to other Reform Party policies.
The fact is that we are not going to leave those people in the former Yugoslavia to brutality, to torture or to carnage. We believe we have an obligation as part of the United Nations mandate to help bring some stability to that area. We are certainly not going to do anything to endanger the safety of our captured troops, least of all retreat.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the critic for the Reform Party says that I have some explanations to give. Perhaps he would like to give an explanation to Canadians as to why he advocated yesterday on behalf of his party that Canadians retreat from Bosnia, leave our hostages there and allow the rest to get him out.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I do not know why the hon. leader of the Reform Party is so preoccupied at this late date with the forum for discussion.
Discussions are ongoing. There is nothing fuzzy about the government's position. I do not know how the hon. leader of the Reform Party can make that statement having sat here last night and listened to my speech in which I outlined the number of criteria for our continued participation in a redefined UN mandate. That was outlined again today by our Minister of Foreign Affairs in The Hague.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
If the hon. member would listen, I will explain.
We have had continual contact back and forth, personal, one on one and bilateral and other multilateral meetings since last December between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, myself and other ministers of defence of NATO contributing nations.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is in Europe, has been fully apprised of what has been happening and has given input into the deliberations that went on yesterday.
Bosnia May 30th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, there have been concerns on the part of a number of countries about the contact group and membership.
As a result we are now looking at perhaps shifting some of the focus to NATO nations contributing troops. There may be a meeting on Saturday or a few days later in Brussels to deal with that.
Canada is certainly a member of that group. We had one meeting last December-
Bosnia May 29th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I have to reiterate what the Prime Minister said.
A procedure was put down a year ago when NATO discussed the possibility of using air strikes. The United Nations has the authority in certain circumstances where warranted to ask NATO to perform those air strikes.
That procedure was followed last week and there was nothing abnormal about the procedures.
Government Contracts May 19th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I do not know where some of these people get their quotes. I never said that at all. I would never say that.
I was pointing out a situation in which certain expenditures are made across the country. Certain installations are built across the country as a result of historic circumstances. To imply that there was something discriminatory in this is completely outrageous.
Canadian Armed Forces May 18th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I must thank the hon. member for his question. Contrary to certain allegations that the closure of the Saint-Jean military college would negatively affect the recruitment of francophones in the armed forces, I am pleased to announce that we met our recruitment objective this year for francophone officer cadets, which was 30 per cent.
This clearly shows that francophones still and will always consider a career in the Canadian forces to be worthwhile.