That's definitely why we have to conduct visits, especially to Washington, to engage congressmen, because relations among elected representatives are frankly odd, particularly with the U.S. Congress.
I might just say, the American system, as we know, is constructed...there's the executive with whom we have well-established relationships, but the Congress, where most of our problems come from...these are elected representatives like yourselves, and my experience is that this is one area where we really can make a difference with you taking the lead.
I observed firsthand in my over 300 calls on Parliament Hill, the times I went up with parliamentarians, it just lifted our game significantly because you understand one another, you have so much in common, you're both elected. That does more to help us, particularly in Washington, but then taking the relationships, because it's all personal, and going to their districts and inviting them up here. I heard many times from senior congressmen who are now well placed, the chairs of the committees who take the actions that are aimed...because they had relationships with Canadian parliamentarians. In my view, the two most effective Canadian parliamentarians are Jerry Grafstein and Colin Kenny, partly because of longevity--they've worked on a sustained basis with members of Congress, and that's where you can make a difference because that's where the problems start.
In my view, diplomacy in the United States has to be waged differently than the way we do it in the rest of the world. Again, I come back; a critical ingredient is parliamentarians like yourselves. I was very pleased when you were allowed to visit Washington, but I would strongly encourage you to widen the travel privileges so you can go into the districts. I also encourage provincial parliamentarians.
For example, I've seen the members of Quebec's National Assembly all across the country.
I've seen them also in the western state legislatures, because this works at every level.
You have Darrell Dexter, from Nova Scotia, the leader of the opposition, coming down and meeting with counterparts in Maryland and New York and heading off potential problems with “buy America” by pointing out the relationship with the Atlantic, in this case, particularly Nova Scotia. There was then-leader of the opposition in Ontario, John Tory, coming down and calling on members. They understood him, because he was the minority leader from the provincial legislature. This made a big difference. We can't do it enough.