Foreign Affairs committee  There's one point about which I couldn't agree with you more. We have at least a million Chinese-speaking Canadians, and it is puzzling that we don't have more people in the foreign service abroad who can speak Chinese, never mind people who can actually engage on trade and develop our markets abroad.

Foreign Affairs committee  Lastly, are we doing enough in our post-secondary institutions to develop that kind of talent?

Foreign Affairs committee  I actually wanted to ask our guest something. A couple of questions ago you ended where I was hoping you wouldn't, and that was on some of the changes you would like to see. You were just touching on them, I think, because you're definitely of the school of engagement, constructively.

Foreign Affairs committee  Where was it?

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  This is actually a fairly recent--January, February 2008--Foreign Affairs article, mostly dedicated to China, by John L. Thornton on what's happening in China in terms of democratic development. In his article, he cites an article that was written, and he finds it interesting that this was actually in a periodical that was supported by the party, and that was widely read.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. And thank you to Mr. Burton for coming on fairly short notice. I appreciate your being here today. Where to start? I want to start with the idea of democracy and its evolution. I know that at the local level they have this kind of process for open recommendation and selection.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Leblanc, I have a question. You mentioned the high frequency wave radar system process. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Is that still something that is necessary and that we should be investing in as a component of the whole rubric of Arctic sovereignty? And could you just tell us what should be done, if this is indeed something that needs to be put in place?

Foreign Affairs committee  But certainly we'd need more than 12 rangers to be able to do that successfully.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Do I have more time?

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll just be very quick. To my friends from the Rideau Institute who joined us today, you are saying that we should be doubling our space budget. But before we do that, I guess you would want a space policy. Is that correct? To my understanding, to date we don't have what we would call a space policy in this country.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our guests, both here and in B.C. I just want to state for the record on the issue of whether or not we should have privatized MDA, we were clear. In fact, my colleague Ms. McDonough, at the time, tried to convince the government not to privatize and actually wanted to bring in stronger provisions to protect our technology.

Foreign Affairs committee  So how much will it cost?

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to turn to some of the questions that Mr. Rae had. I asked Mr. Manley when he was in front of the committee, before the motion passed, a question around how the command and control will work with the American troops. I had predicted at the time that we would have the American troops as a complement to the 1,000.

Foreign Affairs committee  I appreciate that. I just wanted to know the context, the difference between the Americans and us. I think you've shed some light on that.