Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand and talk about the softwood lumber issue.
I want to take a moment to correct the very distinguished member for Yellowhead who said that the Liberals had done absolutely nothing. They did do something in 2001 when they approached the Americans with a proposal that would have completely sold out Atlantic Canada. They proposed to take away the Maritime exemption, which the Maritime Lumber Bureau fought hard for over many years. It was so crazy it even baffled the Americans. The Americans never considered the possibility that Atlantic Canada had a subsidy on its softwood lumber. Nobody could understand why the government made this proposal. The government did do one thing in the last decade or so.