Thank you, Mr. Chair. I enjoyed election night in B.C., but not as much as I had hoped.
I appreciate this panel. This is, by far, the strongest panel we've had on Canada-U.S. relations. I'm disappointed that the parliamentary press gallery is not here. They could do a much better job of covering economic issues. But we'll make sure we get this information out so they understand the strength of the witnesses we have today.
I'll start with Mr. Myers and Mr. Weir. Both of you have spoken about putting forth a buy Canada strategy. I know for the Canadian manufacturers and exporters, you've been saying for a long time that we need a domestic buy Canada program, particularly to negotiate the reciprocal access agreements we need to have, given what's happened in the United States with buy America.
Mr. Weir, you've also spoken to this, and I know Ken Lewenza has as well. We need to put in place buy Canada provisions. That's the NDP position. We've been pushing it in Parliament as well. So the government is not ignorant of the importance of putting this into place.
Mr. Weir, I'd like to ask you why you think the Conservatives have refused to implement something that is common sense and that has a broad degree of consensus on both the industry side and the labour side.