Mr. Speaker, it is just so unlike the government to ignore a western issue, but the unlikely has happened.
The Prime Minister's Office has let it be known that yesterday the Prime Minister broke the ice and called President Bush. We can imagine how thick that ice must have been. But when he finally called, did he talk about mad cow disease and the closed U.S. border, the single biggest crisis to face Canadian agriculture in a generation? No. Or at least not that he can remember. He does remember talking about the Montreal Expos but he is drawing a blank when it comes to the Alberta Angus and the Saskatchewan Charolais.
Maybe that is appropriate. The Prime Minister might as well end his reign in the same way as he started it. In his 40 year career he has never made an attempt to try to understand western and rural issues or apparently even to take them seriously.
Does it matter to him that thousands of farm families and entrepreneurs may lose everything they have worked for their entire lives? Based on what he remembers about his call to President Bush, I guess the answer is no.