Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to make a suggestion to the hon. member who just spoke. Perhaps he should speak to the speech writing department at DFAIT and suggest that it produce more than one template speech for Liberal members because much of what he just said was reiterated verbatim by some of his colleagues earlier.
I find it quite remarkable that Canada today is facing the greatest trade catastrophe in post-war history and yet not a single member of the government has evinced a patina of responsibility on their part for what has happened. It is all the Americans' fault.
Could it be that the lack of action on the part of the United States to our trade concerns has something to do with the fact that the Prime Minister and his nephew both suggested support for Al Gore in the U.S. presidential election, or that the president has written off and dismissed the Prime Minister as Dino, which is apparently the nickname the president has given him, a representative of a political past that is not in touch with the American administration?
Would the hon. member also comment on the government's failure to take up proactively with the United States the possibility of broadening and improving the FTA and NAFTA to include softwood lumber since 1993?
Why is it that the government did not take up the mantle of free trade and press more vigorously for the kind of agreement which would have precluded the sanctions that are now threatening the existence of our lumber and agricultural industries?