Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively to the speech by my colleague from the Canadian Alliance. If there is one thing that caught my attention, it was when he referred to the Prime Minister's visit to New York on the weekend, to the World Economic Forum. The member spoke about the Canadian dollar and the effect of the presence of the Prime Minister of Canada and his speech on the Canadian dollar. He actually made it drop. The Prime Minister managed quite the feat in making the Canadian dollar drop while he was in New York.
But I have a question for my colleague from the Canadian Alliance. There is much concern about the instability of the Canadian dollar, about its constant and structural decline over the last 30 years, about the violent swings in the Canadian dollar over the last few weeks and last few years, since the Asian crisis. The same question is always raised, regarding the causes.
There are two things that need to be considered. First, when it comes to businesses being competitive, I think that everyone would agree that Canadian businesses have a problem competing, with American businesses in particular. Second, when it comes to the Canadian dollar, I think that there is less consensus on this, because every time we raise the issue, the member seems to have an acute attack of Canadian nationalism. However, on the currency markets, the Canadian dollar is considered a secondary currency, which falls victim to speculators who can make money with every infinitesimal change in the value of secondary currencies, such as the Canadian dollar.
The member mentioned that he was concerned about Canada's economy. If such is the case, would it not be a good idea to agree to have the debate that we in the Bloc Quebecois have raised, on the issue of the monetary integration of the Americas, so that we can prepare ourselves for having a single currency some day?
Whether it is the American dollar or something else, that is not important. But let us stop being victimized by speculators and provide some support for Canadian business to help them become more competitive and stop this decline in the Canadian dollar.