Mr. Speaker, on this particular weekend the minister of agriculture was leaving for a trade mission to Japan. In my own case, I was in Washington on Saturday talking with Canadian embassy officials about access to U.S. grain markets for Canadian grain supplies and heading off additional trade disputes.
The organizers of the committee made it absolutely clear that the only persons who would be acceptable in terms of representing the government would be the minister of agriculture or myself. Unfortunately, in the circumstances, both of us were fighting for farmers elsewhere.