Foreign Affairs committee  Then, could you also give me an idea of the number that are approved and the average time frame for approval?

Foreign Affairs committee  The reason I asked that is because obviously our defence industry is critical to our sovereignty and our security. Being a small country of 37 million, our defence industry has about 80% of its revenue driven from exports, not from sales specifically to the Canadian government an

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Ask him for a signed copy of the book.

Foreign Affairs committee  Where do we find it? Where's the list?

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I'd like to make sure I have time for Dr. Lindberg. I apologize.

Foreign Affairs committee  Dr. Lindberg.

Foreign Affairs committee  Okay. Do we need to be able to answer that in more detail before we can move to the “what we do about it” in terms of the actual solutions? I want you to answer that with two perspectives, if you could, because it sounds like we're talking about “them” rather than talking perhap

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Obviously, it's not the most positive; it doesn't look like we're moving in the right direction. Are we at a stage where we need to define the problem, or do we already have a good understanding of the problem and, as a result, need to move into the concrete

Foreign Affairs committee  There's no question then we've defined the problem. You've identified the declaration of principles as being an overarching guide of what we stand for, so that would be the “what” that we're trying to achieve. As a parliamentarian, I'm looking for concrete recommendations of wha

Foreign Affairs committee  Without contradicting my honourable colleague, I would like to hear from the opposition that the amendments are so significant in structural change, that they're so important, that we need to make these amendments. Ultimately, I feel that there's a potential for the perfect being

Foreign Affairs committee  A few weeks ago the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute testified before this committee about their promotion of democracy. I think it's important to recognize two elections that they observed, and Canada's appreciation of them. A joint NDI/

Foreign Affairs committee  That leads to my next question. Both of you have institutions that have been in place for quite some time. If you had to do it over again, and you were starting to create an institution at this moment, what key things would you do differently or focus on to set it up for succes

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Gershman.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much to both of you for being here and helping out with this important conversation. My first question is for both of you. It's quite concerning that we've seen 13 consecutive years of the erosion of democracy. I'd like to know, one, has that erosion over the pa