I am aware of the bitter reaction of minister Landry and I am disappointed to see the opposition member adopt the same attitude. The fact is that Team Canada, which is led by the Prime Minister and includes nine premiers as well as some 300 business people, made an extremely successful trip to China which is unprecedented. Chancellor Kohl made a visit which resulted in contracts totalling some four billion dollars for Germany; a trip by the US trade representative, Mr. Brown, resulted in business deals of some $5.2 billion. Yet, the total figure for these two missions is not even as high as the amount of the contracts obtained by the group led by the Canadian Prime Minister.
In other words, this is an extremely successful trip and, instead of minimizing its results, our opponents should be pleased because this will mean jobs for Canada and particularly for several Quebec ridings.