Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by saying through you to the hon. member that in no way, shape or form are we defending the previous government's Baie Comeau book publishing policy. I believe the parliamentary secretary to the minister of heritage stated that quite clearly in her previous remarks.
The difficulty that we have in this particular transaction is the fact that in 1986 when Gulf and Western committed to sell 51 per cent of Ginn within two years, it could not find a Canadian buyer. At that time the government directed the CDIC to offer to buy the 51 per cent. We are talking now in 1986. This is not three weeks before an election date, like when you compare it to the helicopter transaction where we had taken a public policy
position during the campaign. It is not like Pearson International Airport where the deal was done two weeks before the final vote and we declared our position. This was a transaction that emanated in 1986.
We inherited this completed transaction. Does the member think that when a transaction went back that far that there is some responsibility on us or is the member suggesting that we just ignore all of these contracts, some of them going back three, four and five years?