Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for that extremely important question.
Quebec's right to speak outside Canada troubles many people, especially the members from other provinces. It is obvious that Quebec has always been proactive and that it always exerted its influence abroad. At one point, Canada began to exert its influence abroad, and we only have to go back in history to see how much of that influence is attributable to Quebec. Canada has always followed Quebec initiatives. Quebec has very often opened the doors for Canadian companies and served as an example for the rest of Canada.
In that sense, depriving Quebec of its right to exert its influence abroad would deprive it of a voice, would deprive it of a means to be self sufficient and to acquire capital. That is important. As is implied in my colleague's question, Quebec's influence abroad is also Canadian influence abroad and Canadians should think about that. I wonder where Canada would be without Quebec.