There's no question. You've taken a proper position, not only on manufacturing, but also on a variety of other pieces in the food chain. Think about the pandemic. Talk about a nation that was completely unprepared. We couldn't even keep our own citizens safe. We had no way of providing vaccines. We couldn't even provide masks or gowns because, as a nation, successive governments have always believed in the theory of when you can buy it cheaper, it's best. So we've outsourced our safety, and frankly, we've outsourced so much of how we can maintain manufacturing in this country. So you're right: The assembly plants are down in North America because of the lack of computer chips. But we have lacked an industrial strategy, frankly, for generations. We're the only nation in the world that's so rich in natural resources and raw materials and has never had a strategy to put Canadians to work based on such a strategy.
Today's discussion—and you're right—is how do we do things differently? How do we learn from, frankly, the U.S. implementing a buy American strategy? Do we talk about a buy Canadian strategy? If we're going to have $100-billion-a-year worth of Canadian procurement, why in the heck wouldn't we have a strategy that says we're going to use the $100 billion to put Canadians to work?
These are the types of discussions we have to have. We can't have governments with a complete free enterprise mindset that says Canadian workers have to drop their wages to be competitive, like somehow we can be competitive with Mexican workers. So we're going to have to have a real, straightforward, aggressive conversation on mobilization, and on the needs of a nation, and what that means.