Mr. Speaker, I may not be as harsh as my colleague, the member for Kamouraska--Rivière-du-Loup-Témiscouata--Les Basques, by saying “Is there a lack of planning”.
I think we can understand that no one could have anticipated such an unpredictable situation. Clearly, there is a lack of leadership, but I believe there is most of all a lack of influence. We saw it in the United States, where the president, to a certain extent, treated the Canadian Prime Minister as someone who did not have to be consulted, as it was a foregone conclusion that he would give his support because we are family.
Somehow, we are the United States of America. In that regard, I can understand that it is not the right time to squabble with the president of the United States, though this attitude is somewhat bizarre. Nevertheless, it proves that the Canadian Prime Minister does not have the influence he claims he does.
However, as far as planning is concerned, since almost two weeks have passed since the events which took place, I believe that we should do everything in our power, my father used to say “Everything could be turned upside down”, to start planning. However, my main criticism of the government at this moment is its total lack of transparency.