National Defence committee  No. As I said, I was the last Canadian to command the NATO fleet.

National Defence committee  It was 2006-07. We have moved away. I mentioned the lack of command ships, and all that caused some of that to happen. Other nations building their own command ships that never used to be in the rotation for command also made that rotation a little longer. But we have been prese

National Defence committee  No.

National Defence committee  When you have a Canadian general or admiral as the chair of the military committee, it brings a level of influence that you may not have otherwise. I'm not saying that you would do that, use it the wrong way. To have a Canadian in command of the operations in Libya, as General Bo

National Defence committee  Well, as we've seen in recent operations, let's say in the Libyan operations, we had a frigate that was deployed and operated there immediately, under General Bouchard's command in Naples. More from a Canadian perspective, Canada's forces and the navy, as one of the services, alw

National Defence committee  That's absolutely correct.

National Defence committee  I do. In fact, Canada is definitely on that list. When NATO countries operate, go into a theatre of operation, they'll go under what is called NATO procedures and rules. Those seven or eight countries have the equipment, have the ability, have the knowledge to operate, and real

National Defence committee  We have to move beyond the simple visits of NATO squadrons to come across and go all the way up to Montreal, do exercises just outside Halifax, and then move south to off Norfolk. We have to make it more visible that we are a member of that organization. As for the north, as the

National Defence committee  Yes. The replacement of our current 12 frigates is a program under the national shipbuilding program. Some of those will have command capabilities on board, and by that I mean the extra communication equipment they need to carry and the extra space to carry staff on board. When y

National Defence committee  Some of them will, yes.

National Defence committee  They will carry the necessary radar equipment to do that kind of job.

National Defence committee  I support everything that was said there.

National Defence committee  Yes, but also on the first point about the command of the operation in Libya, General Bouchard happened to be the second-in-command of the Naples NATO command. He had just finished bringing his headquarters up to speed should something like that happen. He had just finished doing

National Defence committee  Participation and active contribution, without caveats, to NATO operations outpace the 2% by a long shot.

National Defence committee  Absolutely, yes.