I've made no secret of our desire to rebuild the Canadian military to have the capacities of a sovereign nation. To make foreign policy decisions that are not only independent but are actually noticed by other powers around the world.

After 17 months in office the record of this government ? or I should say in many instances its lack of record ? has become unacceptable to a large majority of members of the House representing on overwhelming majority of Canadian voters,

The U.S. defends its sovereignty. The Canadian government will defend our sovereignty.

I'm not sure anything has changed .... Mr. Layton is not happy with the proposals he's had. He's not been happy with them for a while. And I'm not sure what his next move is, but it seems to me that he's still looking for leverage to get more out of the government rather than let the Canadian people have their say,

I think what I've tried to lay out to the Canadian people is that we would take a middle-road approach. I don't think we're going to be able to have a lot of other stuff.