Mr. Chair, I listened intently to my hon. colleague who was in a bit of dream world and wanted to talk to Condoleezza Rice. I would encourage my hon. colleague to wake up from his slumber and face reality. I do not believe that Condoleezza Rice is all that concerned about his riding, but I do believe that he is. If he is, I would like him to answer as to why the government, in which he sits as a member, sat on its laurels and did absolutely nothing while it waited for the clock to tick down on the five year agreement for the softwood lumber industry, before this ever got into litigation or got into a battle between personalities, between governments, and ruined the relationship between two sovereign countries.
The Liberals allowed the clock to tick down before any leadership was shown. They sat in a majority government and had the full opportunity to show leadership at that time and they refused to do it. They just sat there, did absolutely nothing and showed absolutely no leadership. Now the member stands and says they are wanting this to be resolved and they are wanting to show some sort of leadership at this stage in the game. A lot of the industry in Canada has lost jobs and it has ruined the lives of some individuals. Their opportunity for employment in the industry is no longer there.
Why would the government show that lack of leadership at that time? The hon. member has to go back to his place tonight and look in the mirror and answer that question, because it has negatively affected the industry in such a terrible way.