Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As we were saying a few months ago, we lived in hope, because we felt that with hard work we should always have hope. We also knew, though, that we had a very tough road to climb. I think I said when we had our in camera session that we had been warned we would not know the outcome of our hard work until the very last minute of the very last vote.
As you heard the ambassador say, positions changed. The world is very fluid, depending on a whole series of other interactions and exchanges that were happening between parliamentarians, exchanges and interactions over which Canada has absolutely no influence and in which it is not a player. People would be trading off the seal issue in order to get something else, so deals were struck that we know nothing about, that we're not party to.
I think I may say, and the minister has certainly said, that the election in June of all parliamentarians has had an impact on this. Had we been able to have a vote post-June, there might have been a different outcome.
I heard a few parliamentarians on the radio after the vote speaking about the very real political impact and the threats that were made to them about their political careers if they didn't take a certain position. It is because all of that was thrown into the mix, and because Canada is not a member of the EU and therefore had nothing really to trade at that point, I think, that we ended up where we are.