Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chance to comment on this debate. I do hope that perhaps somewhere a bureaucrat is taking notes of the debate tonight, because there is not a whole lot else.
The member for Medicine Hat has made a strong case, as has the leader of the Canadian Alliance, about the morality, if we will, of the free trade movement that is going on around the world. I think the free trade agreement of the Americas has the potential to create a strong middle class in parts of the world that have not experienced it. They have very poor populations with a wealthy group at the top, but no strong middle class.
It is the creation of a strong middle class that should be the aim of any international trade agreements we have with other countries. A strong middle class is the best guarantor of a good clean environment. A strong middle class is the best guarantor of human rights and democratic reform. A strong middle class is the best assurance of strong labour laws, because a strong middle class will be working in a society and will want to have rules. A strong middle class is the best assurance of the creation of wealth, and the creation of wealth is what the free trade agreement could bring to parts of the Americas that have not experienced wealth in any meaningful way in their entire existence.
However, I agree with the member about the danger we are facing. I fear we are going to see it. The NDP has encouraged some rather scurrilous behaviour, I think, in Quebec. I do fear for the free trade movement, because the government refuses to accept parliament's role in approving, debating and ratifying any future free trade agreements. It is done in Australia, which has a system of approving in parliament. It is done in New Zealand.
In the United States the president can try to fast track it, but he knows that he has to have the senate on board. If it is Switzerland there would have to be a referendum on it. In most jurisdictions of the world all the power is not with the executive. It is spread out among parliament, as it should be, which creates a sense of confidence in the agreements that are being signed.
I plead with the government in its negotiations and in negotiations to come on the free trade agreement of the Americas and other free trade agreements to bring those agreements to the House of Commons for ratification. By doing so, by opening up the debate, it can get all Canadians on side. These debates and these arguments could be made in a free way in the House and in committee by bringing in witnesses and so on.
I have a question for the member for Medicine Hat. Does he believe that bringing agreements like the free trade agreement of the Americas to the House of Commons would make any difference? Would it satisfy those people who will go to Quebec City, bound and determined to shut down the free trade agreement? Would it help them to understand and to give us an opportunity to carry the argument, as Tony Blair said, in a passionate way about the value and the importance of free trade agreements?