Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the hon. member's remarks as he was turning himself into a pretzel to praise the government's performance on this. He will have to agree that in spite of this litany of wonderful interventions that the government purports to have made, the border is still only open a crack. Less than 30% of Canadian beef products are making it into the American market.
I would like the member to acknowledge publicly that in spite of these efforts, there are the previous comments by the government. There are the previous comments from individuals associated with the government, such as the press secretary to the Prime Minister making very antagonistic remarks against the president. Members of his own caucus have referred to the American people in less than complimentary terms. There is the Prime Minister's refusal to act quickly after September 11, including his recent visit to the United Nations where he provoked the United States with some very antagonistic remarks about what was going on in Iraq. Would the member acknowledge that this does not bode well for Canada?
This does not improve the goodwill necessary to bring about the opening of the Canadian border. This type of half-hearted effort that his Minister of Agriculture and his government is making is not cutting it. It is not happening.
This is the biggest agriculture crisis in the country since the Depression. This is an effort on behalf of parliamentarians to bring forward an all party delegation to go Washington, complete with members and stakeholders of the agriculture community. There is no money for that he said. But we should give money to individual members of Parliament to go off on parliamentary junkets. We should give the Governor General money to go touring around the north, but we cannot find money to save a multibillion dollar agriculture industry.
Why would the member not support this particular effort? If he really does embraces the Prime Minister's call for an all hands on deck approach, why would he back away from an effort that would bring together stakeholders and members of Parliament in a non-partisan effort to go to Washington and make the case, with the science, with the individuals affected, with the political will?
I know he is a chicken farmer, but he is behaving more like a weasel farmer with his words today.