Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member enumerate the many speeches that he has given and the questions that he has asked and so on. I heard him say that there has been a lack of response from the government. That is simply incorrect.
There was wide consultation by the government before the softwood lumber agreement ran out. There was and still remains a national consensus. Even his own party critics agreed that to renew the softwood lumber agreement was not the thing to do, that it should be left to run out and then we would have free trade unless the Americans took punitive trade action. Unfortunately they have again done that and now we are pursuing every legal option available to us.
I would like to ask the hon. member to comment on this: If his party was so busy on this file, why were there at least two months a year ago when that party had no trade critic whatsoever? Weeks and weeks went by when neither that member nor anyone else could even get their House leadership to allow them to put a question on softwood lumber. These are verifiable facts. Maybe he could explain that inconsistency with all this concern of his party for the softwood lumber file.