Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
One of the things Canadians are particularly fortunate to have in you, Ambassador, is a tremendous amount of experience. I think it's an exceptional kind of experience that's quite rare.
You were there at the creation of the free trade agreement; you were there at the creation of NAFTA, in a more direct way; and you were of course there at the restructuring of Canada's tax system to make us competitive, particularly in our relations with the United States.
At the time the opposition vigorously opposed all those changes with visions of disaster. When they became the government, nothing changed, but they, of course, said it would result in disaster; in the wake of that we saw tremendous economic growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector, from which all Canadians benefited.
Now we have the same kind of situation with the softwood lumber deal. You rolled in and very quickly helped contribute to what had been an intractable solution that was costing the country jobs and billions of dollars. We have a new deal, and again we have the same critics.
Based on your experience, with the benefit of hindsight and having been there at the table all those times, could you comment on whether you think those criticisms today are valid?