Mr. Chair, I think it is good to see bipartisan support in the United States for Ukraine at the level of Congress and the Senate. I think it is troubling that within the White House, there is a new-found desire to look the other way, in some cases, when it comes to what Russia is doing in order to try to build a closer relationship. One worries that it may have a destabilizing effect on multilateral efforts so far, through the NATO umbrella, to support Ukraine.
We have seen already with the government how a change in attitude in the White House can change the position of the government. For instance, when the government was first elected, in its eyes, NAFTA was a good deal and there was not much that needed to be changed. A new president came in, and suddenly, through third parties and the media, it was floating the idea of conceding Canada's supply management system as a way to modify that deal. It came out of nowhere for Canadian producers who depend on the supply management system for their livelihoods. That was a bit of a shock.
When we see something like that happen, we have to ask, on other issues where the President is beginning to change U.S. policy, where the government might land.
We see something similar when it comes the very obvious change in the path to immigration for certain refugees who no longer feel safe in the United States. The government wants to maintain, presumably to please the President of the United States, that people crossing through farmer's fields during blizzards with their families is a perfectly status quo way for people to immigrate to Canada, when it is clearly not.
We have already seen that a change in the attitude and the position of the President, even without any direct request for the Canadian government to change its point of view, can lead to a change, not just in opinion but also in the policies, in some cases, of the government.
I think it is important that we keep our eyes open on this file when we hear the President making allusions to needing to improve his own relationship with Russia.