Mr. Speaker, the policy of the government is and has been to have even-handed treatment of both major airlines.
I certainly agree with the hon. member there are links that American Airlines has with Canadian. In fact, British Airways also has links with it. However, Air Canada has links with Lufthansa and Continental. If we were to stop giving anything to Air Canada because of its links with Lufthansa because it may benefit Lufthansa or some German provider of services, I think that would be absurd.
Obviously in the world of aviation today all our major companies will have links with other major international companies. Both our airline companies are operating in that environment and both are operating competitively. I would prefer to have our airlines try to improve service rather than spend their time on political battles in this House.