Mr. Speaker, the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry is criticizing the Canadian government for constantly saying that Canada is the best country in the world. I would like to tell him that his problem is not with the Canadian government, but with the United Nations. Indeed, it is the United Nations Development Program that, each year for the past six years, has noted that respect for others and the quality of life in Canada were absolutely remarkable. Therefore, the member may have more of a problem with the United Nations than with the government.
He went back to what I said about Canada not being a traditional country, a traditional nation state, and wondered if there was a contradiction between the throne speech and my way of thinking.
The member for Beauharnois—Salaberry must look at 150 years of history and at the country we have built to see that it is indeed a country, contrary to any nation state.
What is a traditional nation state? It is a political power that has formed an alliance with a nation, generally the majority nation. That is what happened in France, in Great Britain, in Germany and in Italy. The state formed an alliance with the majority nation and systematically assimilated minorities and tried to eliminate any differences.
Here, in Canada, the country we have built is not a traditional nation state because, contrary to what happened in other countries, we have built our country on the reconciliation of different peoples and different nations. That is Canada's strength today.
Since we are a country that did not try to eliminate diversity but, rather, made it central to its identity, I say that in this era of globalization, which imposes diversity everywhere, we have a great advantage in that we have been experiencing such diversity for 150 years, including here in this parliament.
Madam Speaker, you are tolerant toward me, so I will continue to provide replies to the questions that were put to me.
I can assure the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry that last week we had an excellent work session with the provincial ministers of trade. We had very wide consultations and very productive discussions. We are determined to work closely together to ensure that the next round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization will prove as satisfactory to Canadian businesses as did the first eight rounds. I can assure you that we will work very hard to achieve that goal.
As for getting the house involved, we will do all that is necessary with our excellent Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I will of course be very pleased to work with the committee and with the house.