Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for her intervention this evening. This is an important debate and I appreciate her comments. I cannot say that I agree with her comments, and frankly, I am a bit surprised by them.
The purpose of including a cultural exemption, as it is in all of Canada's free trade agreements, every single one of them, is to ensure the maintenance of adequate flexibility to pursue domestic policy objectives. That is further backed up by the core objective for Canada, as it is again in all trade agreements, including and eventually the Canada-European Union comprehensive economic and trade agreement.
My question for the hon. member is, why does she not support the ability of Canadian culture to maintain, sustain and sell itself on the world stage? Why does she not believe in her own cultural identity of Quebec? It has a negotiator at the table. It has representation at the table. Why would she prevent, and why would she want to prevent, the great artists in Quebec from competing on a national and worldwide scale? Why would she want to keep Cirque du Soleil strictly in the province of Quebec, keep it cocooned and not able to travel and perform throughout the world?
I do not understand why the hon. member does not have confidence in our own culture here in Canada, when we are going to enter into a negotiation with the European Union that has 27 member states, 23 languages and a diversity of cultures, and has managed to trade and maintain its culture on the world stage.