Mr. Speaker, I guess we are making a little progress. We found out that the NDP does believe in rules for investment. Of course the member, in answering the question, went on to Metalclad and so on. That was not the point of my question at all.
I was speaking not about maximizing profits but about protecting the life savings of people through a proper series of investment rules that are very important here in Canada and abroad.
The hon. member asked earlier how we can call the summit democratic. Very simply, we had 34 democratically elected leaders who were there of their own volition to participate in it. We had a parallel summit of citizens funded in large part by the federal government. There were extensive consultations and hearings at the standing committee and by the minister. There were a number of opportunities for Canadians to be involved.
My question for the hon. member is simply this. How can he and his party ignore comments like those of UN secretary general Kofi Annan who has said that the best thing we can do, including the NDP, for the very people we all seek to help, the less fortunate peoples, is to globalize and liberalize trade. How can NDP members ignore the comments of such an outstanding world leader?