John Baird

[National Defence, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, just a few short days ago, the Minister of National Defence tabled a significant amount of information in this House for transparency, openness and accountability.

Obviously, before any purchase can take place, we need to have a parliamentary appropriation and, therefore, no purchase can be made before Parliament is fully informed and appropriates the money.

Just this week the defence minister spent four hours answering questions in committee of the whole. That is an unprecedented amount of transparency in the last year for any minister.

[National Defence, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Forces are remarkable, but they are not that remarkable.

[National Defence, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to congratulate my friend from Hamilton on his promotion to deputy leader of the opposition.

The member could not be more wrong. The numbers that he speaks of were actually tabled before Parliament. Obviously, the mission to Libya was extended on two occasions. It was much longer than was originally envisaged.

The great news is that the members of the Canadian Forces did an exemplary job on behalf of Canada and Canadians. They saved literally thousands and thousands of innocent civilians and Liberals—I mean Libyans.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, May 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his work on this issue. We are aware of this matter and we have spoken with the mayor of Stanstead, the Government of Quebec and the State of Vermont.

The government will continue to make the best possible decisions for Canadian and to stand up for their interests. We will be monitoring the situation closely, and I will be pleased to work with the member on this very important matter.

[Foreign Affairs, May 4th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, we are making some decisions to ensure that we live within our means and that we return to balanced budgets and fiscal sanity in this country.

We have made decisions in the Department of Foreign Affairs on how we can best spend our valuable taxpayer dollars and we believe this is the right decision toward that end.

[Safer Railways Act, May 1st, 2012]

That's true. Never have I heard something more truthful.

[Foreign Affairs, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, there are very serious allegations being made against this company. There are very serious investigations going on. The government will do everything it can to support these investigations and to be as helpful as we possibly can.

Anyone who breaks the law should bear the full force of the law. That is something this government strongly supports, in Canada or abroad. High ethical standards for Canadian enterprise are not up for negotiation.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the NDP warned Canadians and warned all of us this in this House that the Liberals would become more and more desperate and more and more panicky to decide on how they can get attention in this House.

I find the motion brought forward by the Liberal Party says a lot more about the Liberals.

Clearly, the leader of the Liberal Party wants to change the topic. His own caucus and his own party will not defend his time in government, and his own former cabinet sitting on the NDP benches will not defend his leadership.

Canadians will not be fooled by this partisan smear.

[National Defence, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it was the previous government, a Liberal government, that began the process to select a new aircraft for our Canadian Forces. It was the Liberal government that spent over $300 million on arranging and designing this aircraft. It is our government that wants to be sure that the Canadian Forces have the equipment they need to do the job that our government and Canadians ask of them.

[National Defence, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, that is simply not the case. The member opposite will not be surprised that I do not accept the premise of his question.

This government is seeking to ensure that when the useful lifespan of the CF-18 fleet comes to an end in 2020 we have an aircraft for the men and women of the Royal Canadian Air Force that will do the job that the Government of Canada and Canadians are asking them to do. This is something that is foreign to the Liberal Party. The man that it appointed as Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces defined the Liberals' term in office as a decade of darkness.

We are working hard to ensure that does not happen again.