Thank you, Mr. Easter.
In the Canada-Asia relationship today, we are at a point where Canadians and our political and business leaders have all come to an understanding of the economic importance of Asia for us. I think that's quite unanimous now. We've seen how, as our colleague mentioned, after 2008, Asia essentially saved Canada from a more severe recession. That is in part why the Prime Minister, business leaders, and civil society leaders are all talking about the need for diversification and more trade with Asia. That's why we are entering into an FTA and so on and so forth.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I think all of that is bringing us to what I call the hard part in the Canada-Asia relationship, because as we pursue this path that we know we have to take—deeper integration with Asia—we are going to have to do things that are going to be troubling for the Canadian public. So we have to think very hard. You have to think very hard, because you have constituents and so on, about how the public view catches up with the intellectual acceptance of the need to do this.
I'm referring to investment from Asia. I'm referring to state-owned enterprise. I'm referring to FIPAs. I'm referring to FTAs. It's not just India. It's not just China. It's going to get more and more difficult. This is the hard part, but if we want to do it, we have to make sure the public is with us.