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.

We have no illusions about China's desire to acquire sensitive information and technology for military uses by many different means. It is absolutely not true that we downplayed any evidence of this. We took the issue seriously, as our actions demonstrate.

The recruiters came and talked with us in school, and I remember it like yesterday. I wasn't interested. I told them I wanted to do something good. I told them I wanted to help people. I told them I couldn't do it, told them I wasn't interested.
But they told me that there was no better way to do good and help people. They told me they helped people all the time. Doing good was what they were about. Plus they were going to pay me. Where else could I get paid for helping people? Plus they would pay for my college. Plus, in addition to helping people, and paying me, and paying for my college, they would teach me a skill. I would be helping people, and seeing the world, and earning money, and having college paid for, and learning a skill that I could use later to earn money and help people.
In the end, it was a pretty easy decision.

In a military operation, the command and control elements are a legitimate target.

I always say, it doesn't matter how busy I am and how early in the morning it is. The one thing I can always manage to get energy for is to see my kid (Ben) play hockey. I love my job as prime minister, but if you could be a hockey player, I mean, what could be better than that?

We have to remember we're in a global economy. The purpose of fiscal stimulus is not simply to sustain activity in our national economies, but to help the global economy as well, and that's why it's so critical that measures in those packages avoid anything that smacks of protectionism.