Mr. Speaker, I want to comment on some of the comments we heard from some of the Reform members this morning.
The member for Peace River said earlier when he was criticizing the legislation before us that it was creating barriers to the American publications. I want to make sure that the people listening to this debate know that that is totally inaccurate.
The Canadian magazine market is totally accessible to all foreign publications. Anyone can go into any magazine shop in any city or town in the country and buy just about any magazine published in the United States principally, because we happen to receive about 80% to 90% of the export of American magazines in Canada.
For the member to argue that we are creating barriers is tantamount to misleading the House. I want people who are listening to be aware of that.
The member for Peace River said that the foreign publishers would be eligible for subsidies should we provide subsidies to our Canadian publishers. Under the WTO arrangements and under our national treaties, agreements of this kind have never required national treatment under subsidy programs. To make that affirmation that should we desire to help our magazine industry in Canada we would have to extend the same to the American publishers is inaccurate. I wonder on what basis the member made such a suggestion.
Then the member for Selkirk—Interlake talked about how terrible it was that the government would personalize this debate, and that the Minister of Canadian Heritage would infer that she wanted her daughter to have access to stories from Canadians about Canadians in Canadian magazines. That came from a member who just prior to that had made extremely disparaging remarks about someone else, about Maude Barlow. We may or may not agree with the views of Maude Barlow but to say comments like “whatever comes from Maude Barlow turns my stomach” and then say the government is personalizing a debate is uncalled for.
The member for Selkirk—Interlake made a comment which I think a lot of people are going to find rather strange. He said that chastizing the NDP for attacking the Americans does not matter because “we are all Americans”. I have news for him. I am not an American. I am a proud Canadian and I sure as hell want to keep it that way.
The latest intervention was from the member for Medicine Hat, the theory of social evolution à la Monte. I am starting to understand where the Reformers are coming from.
Mr. Speaker, I thought this was questions and comments.