Mr. Speaker, I take my hat off to the hon. member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup for having touched on so many different subjects in 10 minutes. That was quite a feat.
At the beginning of his speech, he echoed what our esteemed colleague from Vancouver Kingsway said about international trade and the dramatic increase in our trade deficit. I know that there are a number of businesses in my colleague's riding that export to the United States and elsewhere. They are suffering because of this situation.
In a speech last October, the former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada talked about one aspect of the issue:
If Canada’s exports had grown in tandem with those of the U.S. and global economies...[Canada's] goods exports would have been $71 billion higher [than they were in 2002].
Could my colleague talk about this disaster, for which the Conservative government is largely responsible?