Jack Pack #5 - It's irresponsible (en francais)

Jack Pack #5

Reading Hansard can be such a fun time for political junkies such as myself. Especially when you find little gems such as the following exchange between Liberal MP Pat O'Brien and Jack Pack member Joe Comartin:

Mr. Pat O'Brien (London—Fanshawe, Lib.):
2004-10-21 17:25 (Government Orders: Supply)


Mr. Speaker, I did not hear all of my colleague's comments but I heard enough that I would like to just ask him a brief question.

I heard him state his personal position and I think he was quite clear about that, but I would like to ask him to speak to the position of the New Democratic Party. I see that the former distinguished leader of that party is close by.

My honest view is that the NDP position on defence, at least in my 11 years in the House, has been somewhat nebulous, if I can put it that way. Others might be less kind, but I would say it has been somewhat nebulous.

The member spoke for himself but to what degree can he speak for his party? Does the NDP support an increase in military funding for personnel in the forces and, if so, to what extent does it support that increase? If there is clarity from his party on this, wonderful, we would like to hear it.


Mr. Joe Comartin:
2004-10-21 17:25 (Government Orders: Supply)

It would be irresponsible for any party to stand in the House and say that it will spend $1 billion on this. I know I want to spend somewhere in the range of $100 million to $200 million on housing and better remuneration for the lower rents. I know I want to do that but I cannot say what the exact number is. Will that figure change if we take on those additional 3,000 or 5,000 in the reserves? Obviously it will go up.

Do we support the replacement of the Sea Kings? Obviously we support that. My colleague from Nova Scotia has been very strong and adamant on that, in spite of the incompetence that has been shown so often by the government on the issue and the length of time it has taken.

However it is irresponsible for anybody to stand in the House today and say that he or she will spend this amount of money. It was irresponsible for the Conservatives in their party policy to say that $1.5 billion had to be spent on operations and $1.5 billion a year on new equipment. They did not know what that meant and they do not know it today either.

That's a pretty strong statement from Mr. Comartin. Irresponsible. This is the Supply day motion that they were debating:

That, in the opinion of this House, the government’s national defence policies are seriously out of date and funding has fallen dramatically short of what is needed to meet defence commitments, the combat capabilities of the Canadian Forces have been permitted to decay and the government is continuing this trend by proposing to raise a peacekeeping brigade at the expense of existing combat ready forces; and accordingly, This House call on the government to commit to maintaining air, land and sea combat capability by ensuring that members of the forces are trained, equipped and supported for combat operations and peacekeeping, in order to enhance Canada’s status and influence as a sovereign nation.

Let's look at this exchange in another context, the Jack Pack Budget, Bill C-48 .

If it's irresponsible for the Conservative Party to stand in the house and call for increased government spending for our military, how is it possible for 1 leader and 18 lemmings to stand up and vote for a bill that authorizes $4.5 billion in spending with no details, plans or limits. THIS is responsible? The actual text of the Bill C-48, once the preamble is stripped out, is not much larger than that of this Conservative Supply Day motion.

At least the Conservatives were only calling on the Liberal Government to increase spending - not handing them a blank cheque to do what they will with it.

Irresponsible indeed.

For those that are interested - much of the material for this blog comes from a fantastic new site called How'd They Vote? From their site:

"Have you ever wondered how your member of parliament has been voting? We've made it easy for you to find out! Contained herein are many of the pivotal votes in the House of Commons, complete with voting history, dissention, attendance and speaking habits."

Take a look - it's well worth it.