Mr. Speaker, I will conclude my remarks by quoting some comments of a noted Canadian journalist. As sensitive as I am to the issue of plagiarism, I want to make sure that we give due credit to columnist Diane Francis and the Huffington Post. I do not quote Diane Francis often, as we disagree on some issues. However, in this case I believe she nails it.
Dealing with the Nexen deal and the CNOOC takeover, she states:
Canadians should be upset and insulted that China's biggest grab for control of a major resource company anywhere in the world is the $15-billion Nexen deal. Clearly, China is testing whether this Boy Scout of a nation will roll over.
She goes on to state:
This is just one of many reasons why Canada must reject this takeover. Another is a warning by CSIS against foreign buyouts of strategic assets, and yet another is that polls show public opposition to the deal.
The third reason she cites is that polls clearly show public opposition to the deal.
Those are three simple reasons for the three minutes that I have left.
Frankly, the third is perhaps the most salient. Canadians have been asked about this deal and have said flatly that they do not want the government to proceed with the deal at this time.
All we are asking in this motion today by the NDP is that there be thorough public consultations. Let us get the best minds in the country, pro and con, for and against, to sit down and discuss whether or not foreign takeovers by state-owned entities such as CNOOC are in the best interests of Canadians. Is that really too much to ask?
In my remarks before question period, I pointed out that the government got rid of the Canadian Wheat Board because it was too much like communism, even though it was just a bunch of prairie farmers acting together in their own best interests. I have heard Conservative members behind closed doors say, “We're going to get rid of that communism, them commie pinkos on the Prairies and their Canadian Wheat Board”. Yet they seem perfectly willing to have a genuine communist dictatorship take over a big piece of our birthright in the Canadian oil patch, that is, our natural resources.
With the one minute I have left, I voice a cautionary note here. It is not just CNOOC. Diane Francis also points out there are hundreds of other corporate appendages of China Inc. on a global acquisition frenzy, with a trillion dollars, gobbling up natural resources and paying premium prices for them, and sometimes wildly extravagant prices because they know the true value of these natural resources in the coming decades and century.
This is our children's birthright. This is a Canadian natural resource. Sinopec, Chinmetals, PetroChina, the China Investment Corporation, and even the city of Tsingtao are currently shopping for oil companies in Calgary. We really have to reflect on whether or not we want these state-owned enterprises to be able to operate in the same way that foreign investors operate.
We are not anti-investment. We believe Canada is open for business, but Canada is not for sale, and we will not allow—