Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the views of the member from Kootenay when he speaks of getting together with a group of parliamentarians, not necessarily from the House but maybe from provincial legislatures and from other democracies around the world as well, to discuss these issues on a continuous basis to see where they can be changed. Nothing is written in stone. We need to alter, reflect, review and renew exactly what is going on. I respect his views and it is something I believe the House could seriously look at.
However, he discussed Mr. Blair, the prime minister of England, and his views. I remember the speech very well. Our party was the only party that did not clap when Mr. Blair spoke of the nuances in terms of free trade. Our point is that Mr. Blair had a woeful ignorance toward the NAFTA deal when he tried to portray free trade or NAFTA as being similar to the European economic union deal. That was simply nonsense. They are simply two different things.
My question for the hon. member from Kootenay and the Alliance Party is this: does he not believe that the environment, human rights, labour standards and the ability of municipal, provincial and federal governments to enact laws to protect their citizens as they see fit should be paramount in any trade deals that are discussed in the near future?