September 22, 2006

OTTAWA – Ron Cannan, Member of Parliament for Kelowna - Lake Country thanks His Excellency Hamid Karzai the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for his address to Parliament. Ron was pleased to meet President Karzai and to welcome him to Canada. Ron personally shook hands and thanked both the Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Karzai for their inspirational and passionate words.

“President Karzai expressed hope for his homeland and outlined clearly the many ways in which Canada is having success in assisting the Afghan people.”

“This speech made me proud to be Canadian as President Karzai made several references to Canada as the model for Afghanistan, closing with the statement that, ‘we in Afghanistan have embraced the vision of a prosperous and pluralistic society which Canada so richly embodies.’”

“hearing both the Prime Minister and President Karzai speak reaffirmed to me, and I hope to all Canadians, that this mission is the right mission for Canada and worthy of our collective efforts.”

“I think that there can be no doubt after today that Canada is making progress and we can be proud of the good work our men and women in uniform as well as humanitarian workers are doing in Afghanistan”

“President Karzai’s remarks speak volumes about the courage, commitment and dedication of the men and women of our armed forces, including members from our very own community who service in the BC Dragoons and National Forces.”

“I thought it was encouraging that President Karzai committed to reducing narcotic productions through the eradication of poppy growing in Afghanistan and the replacement of the drug trade with legitimate means of production. President Karzai has demonstrated he is a responsible player on the international stage.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper commented, “Our job in Afghanistan is not done. As Canadians, we will stay the course until our work there is complete.”

Ron responded by saying, “Through the strength and stability of our own peace we can, in good conscience, help Afghanistan reclaim its own right to peace.”

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Highlights of the Speech:

President Karzai outlined several of the ways in which Afghanistan has improved because of Canada’s role in the nation. Some of his comments on this were:

“Canada, in all respects, has been among the leaders of this partnership. Thanks to Canada’s contributions, Afghanistan today is profoundly different from the terrified and exhausted country it was five years ago.”

“With the inauguration of Parliament, 28 percent of women were placed as members of Parliament.”

“During the time of the Taliban, only 700,000 children went to school; only boys. Today, over six million children go to school; over 35% of them girls, from little girls to adult girls.”

“Five years ago during the rule of the Taliban, people were running away from Afghanistan. We have seen in the past five years, over four and a half million of our refugees have returned to the country”

“When we began in 2001, our income per capita was only $180. Today, it is only $355, but twice more than $180.”

President Karzai also spoke pointedly about the effects of abandoning Afghanistan:

“Whereas Afghans had fought and won the world's war against communism, the reward that Afghanistan received was abandonment by the international community. We were left with a world of destruction to rebuild and at the mercy of a predatory neighbourhood and the bellicose extremist forces that had been brought to Afghanistan.”

“Few cared about the dismal plight of the Afghan people and even fewer thought about the consequences of leaving a country so dangerously vulnerable to foreign extremists. It was in this environment that al-Qaeda, with supporters in the region and beyond, set up its deadly campaign of terror against Afghans and the whole world. While the Afghan people continued to suffer and while we continued to warn the international community about the danger of international terrorism that was brewing in Afghanistan, the world remained unmoved.”