- Member of Parliament
- Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
- Conservative
- Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $91,173.06
- Government Page
- Oct/18/22 12:56:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is a valid question.
In the west, governments make decisions based on national interest and things that are going on. Unfortunately, the world is not fair. How do we fix it and make it up? However, I do take issue with the fact that this is a motion the committee approved, and any member of the committee could have brought it forward for debate this morning on concurrence, which is the crux of it.
Getting to the main portion of the member's question, I would agree that more can always be done. In the west, Canada in particular is one of the nations that has not only the political will but the financial capabilities, despite dealing with this massive deficit right now. Canada could be doing more in all sorts of nations. How the government of the day chooses to deal with that is, well, a good question for the government.
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- Mar/31/22 6:49:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first off, my thanks to the parliamentary secretary. I take his words to heart. I know he is a strong advocate for our Canadian Armed Forces and our veterans, having sat on the veterans affairs committee with him in the last Parliament.
However, I am actually disappointed. My question was directed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The whole question was directed at her actions. It was not to the government and not to the parliamentary secretary, but to her specifically, as to whether she will recognize how good our Canadian Armed Forces personnel are.
I will ask the parliamentary secretary to take that message back. Other Liberal MPs have apologized on her behalf; I want her to actually state in this House how good our military personnel are.
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- Mar/31/22 6:42:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise tonight not really as the member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound representing my constituents, and not even really as a Conservative member of Parliament. That is the privilege I have to be able to rise. I rose and asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs a question last week in reference to a quote that she made, where she stated that Canada “is not a military power.”
As I stated in that question, I have had the privilege of leading some of Canada's finest warriors in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and I would like to educate the minister. That was the point I made in that question about how the strength of our Canadian Armed Forces personnel and our Canadian military is based upon the fact that we are a military power.
It was a simple question to the minister, and that is why I am here tonight to give the minister the opportunity to put it officially on the record, to all our combat veterans across this great nation of ours, that she will acknowledge that the Canadian Armed Forces personnel are among the best in the world and that we are a military power.
Let me expand a little bit, just because there are a lot of myths out there about Canadian Armed Forces personnel and what we have been doing throughout the history of Canada. I think this is even more important as we are approaching the 105th anniversary of Vimy. That is where, really, Canada became a great nation because of our military power and because of our victory on Vimy Ridge, 105 years ago next week.
In my own experience, I turned to my first platoon warrant officer when I was in Oscar Company of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment. We were in Bosnia, but before we got there, I was talking to my platoon warrant officer, and he explained that when he first rolled in from Germany down to Bosnia and Croatia, during the conflicts of the mid- and early 90s, he got into a situation where he got into a roadblock. He was being held up. He took that opportunity to push back with those forces that were trying to oppose his soldiers and say, no, they could not do their job of keeping the peace. He was able to point up to the ridge line and that anti-armour TOW system that was geared up and pointed directly at that roadblock, and that military power allowed him to do his job of keeping the peace over there.
What disappointed me very much in the response was that the minister chose to go partisan. As I said, my question had no context and no partisan angle to it. I was not asking as a Conservative. I was asking as a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, and she said that the question was rich coming from the Conservatives.
I served from 1993 to 2019. I started under Chrétien's government and I lived through the decade of darkness under that Liberal government. I lived under the Harper government, when we got Chinooks, we got strategic lift and we got tanks delivered to us. I even served under the current government.
In the end, all I am asking for the minister to do is to acknowledge that we have some of the best military personnel in the world in our Canadian Armed Forces and that we are a military power.
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- Mar/22/22 2:56:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I and many other combat veterans were disappointed to hear the Minister of Foreign Affairs state that Canada “is not a military power.” I have led some of Canada's finest warriors in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. I would like to educate the minister that Canada's success in “making sure that diplomacy is happening” during global conflicts is predicated by our ability to back it up militarily.
I am doubtful the minister will apologize, but will she acknowledge that Canadian Armed Forces personnel are among the best in the world and that Canada is a military power?
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- Dec/7/21 11:32:01 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think the member will find it easier to respond to my comments if he actually listens to them.
He talked about time and that nobody could have predicted this. He sort of corrected that in his last response, but this was predicted. His own backbencher, the MP for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, raised a concern with the Liberal government two years ago that this was going to come down the pike, so this should have been predicted. I raised it myself in the national media weeks before the government took action.
I will agree with the member. It is the backbenchers' responsibility to stand up and criticize the government at certain times. I am looking forward to members of the Liberal caucus voting for this motion today.
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