Mr. Chairman, I find myself compelled to speak to this amendment.
I'm not about to start debating the importance of trade to the Canadian economy, but I will debate the issue that once this has passed the political hurdles, you take it out of the political spectrum. If any government, whether it's this government in the future or another government, decides this agreement is not in the best interests of Canada, there's a termination clause in it. If we were to bring a trade agreement back to the Parliament of Canada, very possibly with a minority government, whether it's a minority Conservative government or any other political party, it would become a political football.
Mr. Davies is being naive if he thinks there was any legislation passed in the last Parliament without a great deal of difficulty. These free trade agreements were worked on and worked on and worked on ad nauseam. Because we have a majority government, we're finally in a position to pass this measure. I really don't want to put it back in the realm of being a political football again. It was for the previous two Parliaments. It takes it out of that.
If a future government chooses to move in another direction, it has every right to do so.