Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, international trade is a very complex issue. I think the hon. member should go back to his researchers to ask them why they would give him such false information as to put forward in the House the suggestion that we would have to subsidize American companies. That is not the case. It is not even on the board. Most people who have been following this issue know that.
I want to tell the hon. member, because it is a very important point and I think it is an important point for Canadians to know, that what we are talking about here is the 20% of the market that we now control. American and other foreign companies have 80% of the shelf space. We are only talking about 20%.
Is it his position and his party's position that we should all of a sudden give up this 20%, that we should not stand up for Canadian periodicals and Canadians? That is certainly not the position on this side of the House.
The hon. member should know if he is sitting in this House as an elected Canadian member of parliament that it is the role of the Canadian government to stand up for Canada; not to mouth American interests, not to mouth American big business interests, but to stand up for Canadians and to allow Canadians the opportunity to learn more about themselves, to learn more about their culture.
We have a large country. We cover millions of square kilometres of space, with people from the far north to the west coast and to the east coast who want to know about each other, who want to be able to read magazines about life in these areas.
I want to make it clear that they are not afraid to read American magazines or foreign magazines, but they would like to know about these issues from a Canadian perspective. We are only talking about 20% of the market that we hold in that shelf space.
There is some point at which Canadians need to stand up to bullying tactics. That is what we did. We told our friends, and again I say our friends the Americans, that we were not prepared to let their invasion go any further. That is what the Minister of Canadian Heritage did and every Canadian should be proud of that.