Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe that it's not an either-or question. I think there should be a hierarchy of debates. When Canadians vote, they vote because they care about issues. They care about their region, their city, their province, and they're interested in the leaders. It seems to me that it's appropriate to have a major debate among the people who want to be the prime minister and to have other debates within ridings or debates on specific issues.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, if the fundamental interest here is democracy and the public good, then no, I don't believe that any one party should have a veto over that. Of course I think it's critical that such a role, which would be, as Mr. Wells just said, like an officer of Parliament, command the broadest possible support, so I think it would be very important to try to find as much agreement across parties as possible.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I'm really delighted and I'd like to express my strong support for the initiative to create a commission or a commissioner responsible for federal party debates. I think the status quo is problematic in a number of important respects.

International Trade committee  I think that's actually a great model and one we should look at, because the underlying assumption of the FTA approach has been that we offer access to our markets and to our investment. The countries will line up and try to create the conditions that make them most attractive to our investors.

International Trade committee  I think that's potentially true.

International Trade committee  I think it's important to note that Peru has adopted a whole host of rules that enable participation, whether they're referenda, recalls, citizen initiatives, or others; yet most of the consultations are non-binding, so they don't require governments to comply with those sorts of initiatives, whereas these agreements are binding, and they give powerful, muscular provisions that support investor rights.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Latin America is the most unequal region in the world, largely because the rich are very rich. There are historical reasons for this that date back to colonial times. The disturbing and troubling thing about inequality in Latin America is that it's so persistent. Even a country like Chile, which is surely the most successful example of a market-oriented economy and has seen poverty alleviated, has nonetheless seen inequality persist and even get worse in recent years.

International Trade committee  It could well. In the case I gave you, the government did indeed decide that in light of the non-binding decision of the community, they would not proceed with this development. Then they had to defend that legally. That could, of course, happen again.

International Trade committee  Thank you. I think Canadian companies do have a good reputation as corporate citizens in the region, for the most part. That's not always the case. I recall being in a campaign rally in 2006 and somebody came up to me and asked where I was from. I replied that I was from Canada.

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and to share with you some reflections on the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement. I've been doing research on Latin America, and Peru specifically, for 25 years. When I first started to teach Latin American politics, it was in the early 1990s at the time of the NAFTA debate, and I recall being deeply unsettled by some of the claims that were made by advocates of NAFTA who argued that Mexico was poised to become a first world country, that it was going to become a prosperous, capitalist democracy under NAFTA and that it represented a model both for developing countries and potentially even for post-Soviet states.