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Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians

Alex Ruff

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
  • Conservative
  • Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 68%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $91,173.06

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 50 - Mar/31/22
Mr. Alex Ruff (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, CPC)
  • 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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