Mr. Speaker, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”. So wrote Charles Dickens at the beginning of his book, A Tale of Two Cities. When it comes to the economy, the worst of times may be when a leader really believes that the budget balances itself, as the Liberal leader has recently concluded. However, the best of times is when a country in the midst of the most ambitious trade expansion in its history. That is where we Canadians are today.
When our Conservative government came to office Canada had only five concluded free trade agreements. Our government has added 38 signed or concluded agreements. The results are clear. Statistics released yesterday show that Canada's overall trade balance returned to a surplus in February of $290 million.
With 38 countries, our government has added more free trade agreements than there are Liberal members.