Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Scarborough—Guildwood for his contributions to the discussion today. I know, as a long-serving member of the House, his opinions are appreciated around here. However, I do find a little inconsistency in some of his remarks that I wanted to draw to his attention and ask him about.
He mentioned in his remarks that bombing is not a strategy. He called it perhaps wishful thinking that we might actually take out Mr. Gadhafi with a lucky strike. Of course, the focus of the mission is not for a regime change but for the valued role that our forces are playing in protecting civilians.
The member went on to say that protecting civilians should be the focus of the mission. I would ask the member to reflect on the valued role of our armed forces in responding to the no fly zone, in helping to take out the armed forces that were headed to Benghazi and that mined the harbour in Misrata. Our armed forces are out there clearing the harbour so relief can get into Misrata and also taking away the capacity of Mr. Gadhafi's regime to harm his own citizens.
I would ask him to perhaps reflect on the importance of the role of our Canadian armed forces.