Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Centre for the great job that he does as a member of our Alberta caucus. He is a great Albertan and a great parliamentarian who has been here a long time. He is also a very astute businessman who knows the value of relationships.
The previous president, George Bush, broke the longstanding tradition of visiting Canada first, which is what most presidents do for their first official foreign visit, and decided not to come to Canada but instead chose to go to Mexico. Now that the relationship between Canada and the U.S. seems to be a bit better, the newly elected, freshly minted President Obama has chosen Canada and reinstated that tradition. I wonder if he could comment on that.
Given the fact that my colleague is a very astute businessman and knows the value of relationships, I wonder if he could elaborate on just how important our relationship with the United States is to Alberta for our agriculture sector, for our energy sector, and for our manufacturing sector.