Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his speech and for breaking down the history of his party working on this deal.
Before I move forward with my question, I would ask the member to join me in shouting out to the lighthouse keeper who saved a life off Denman Island this weekend. The importance of our lightkeepers on the west coast is proven every time we have a life saved by a lightkeeper, and so we know the value of them.
Knocking on doors during the campaign, I met a women who had to make a tough choice of whether to buy medicine or food. I have met people who have had to come out of retirement to pay for medicine, because of the cost of medicine and the limited pension money they have. We know that the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs is really affecting seniors and other people in our communities.
We understand the importance of trade as New Democrats. We want fair trade, we want good jobs, but we also want to make sure that medicine is going to be affordable.
Is the member concerned that CETA will lead to increased costs of prescription drugs for Canadians, given that Canadians already pay more for prescription drugs than nearly every other OECD country?