Madam Chair, I would like to clear this up because that is what I am saying.
All summer long we asked the Americans to open their border. The science proves that this is not about health and safety. We asked them to open the border up because we have the safest product in the world, and I will stand by that, and the science will prove that as well.
How then can we turn around and say to them, when they have one animal, that we will shut our border to their animals coming into Canada? We are on dangerous ground when our actions do not follow what we have been saying. It actually proves them to be right if we do not do that. This is an integrated market.
I was upset with some of the comments that I heard earlier tonight saying that we should start a trade war with the Americans and get really rough with them. I think the exact term was that we should be playing hardball with them. That is the wrong approach in this situation.
What we have to do is make them realize that this should not be about politics. We have to make them realize that this is not about health and safety. We must open the border to an integrated market. Canadian beef is every bit as safe as American beef and vice versa. It is an integrated market. We should be dealing with this as an American situation and then moving forward to international markets beyond the American border.
I know the minister realizes just how integrated this market is. There is nothing we can do about that except get the politics out of it and let the science make that happen. We should be working to that end.