“Madam Speaker, I am sure Canadians would find it interesting to hear the Conservatives actually make the type of statements that were just made in regard to military expenditures. The member opposite was the parliamentary secretary for defence at the time when we invested just under 1% of Canada’s GDP towards defence, towards our military. We would have to go back generations to realize the type of commitment that the Prime Minister, who was elected just over a year ago, has made. Not only did he say 2% of GDP, but we achieved 2% of the GDP last year. We can talk about tendering and providing the equipment that is necessary and about supporting our men and women in the forces in terms of pay increases. In a very real and tangible way, the current government has been there for our Canadian forces. Does the member have any regrets that the Stephen Harper regime could give only 1% of the GDP?”
Statement grade
A
The average of Signal, Relevance, Respect and Clarity.
Average 94 / 100
A score under 50 is red. Choose a measurement to see where it lost points and why; choose it again to clear.
Claims 96%Positioning 4%
This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Madam Speaker, Claims · 127 wordsthe one thing the member for Winnipeg North never talks about is the creative accounting that the Liberals did to get the 2%.They added these in, which have never been added in before, until 2017, 1and then they added in the big numbers last year: veterans pensions; 2the Canadian Coast Guard’s entire budget, even though it is not a defensive organization nor does it have the ability to be a defensive organization; 3and Transport Canada airplanes.4The pay raise the Liberals gave was long overdue, yet today there are still forces members who have not received the benefits or the bonuses for staying on as members, especially for those who serve in the Canadian reserves.The army reserves have not had those benefits yet at all.5Positioning · 9 wordsThe Liberals can sit here and talk the game, PositioningClaims · 76 wordsbut we know that, even with the increases in salaries, they have clawed them back by increasing rents on our troops.Unearned certaintyThey have increased the living differentials, especially for the people who are now deployed overseas in Latvia.6Their take-home pay has dropped since the so-called raise, because the Liberals are clawing it back through other deductions.If we had used the same math when we were government, our spending would have been well over 1.5%.
