Madam Speaker, my sincere apologies.
Looking at the approach of the current Prime Minister's administration, we see a foreign policy approach that is based in selfies and tweets, like the current Deputy Prime Minister's tweet regarding Saudi Arabia. We do not see it based on a set of core values, as we saw with the previous administration. As Canadians, we have suffered for this, with terrorists ending up in Canadian organizations and citizens being arbitrarily detained abroad. I genuinely believe this is a result of not having core values rooted in our foreign policy.
I am going to apply that now to the Canada-U.S. relationship. In fact, I am seeing the same thing. I see four years that were wasted by the current Prime Minister's administration because it could not get past the head of state with our neighbour to the south. The inability to do that resulted in a number of shortfalls for all Canadians.
Instead of focusing on the individual positions, and what we could have achieved with the previous administration, the current Liberal government instead chose to make it about political positioning back here at home. It was a waste of four years.
Now we see that the tables have turned in the United States. There is a new administration under President Biden. We see the current Prime Minister and his government flipping the switch: they say they were against the previous American administration, but will not fight for Canadians with the current one.
Based on that, we need a Canada-first approach grounded in strong values. That is what has been missing for the last five years, as we have seen a foreign policy based on selfies and tweets, and not rooted in values like those of the Prime Minister's predecessor.
We have seen this in all different sectors and in a number of different issues all across government, including Keystone XL and the Line 5 project. Really, we need to consider what our values are, because the current government has not done that. As a result, it has taken a reactive position time and again to the detriment of Canadians.
What could we do if we had a Canada-first approach grounded in strong values? It would allow us to go to the table with confidence, respecting our partners. When we can do that, we can be empowered to fight for jobs here in Canada and to fight for the Canadian economy, especially at this time as we are coming out of a pandemic with $1.1 trillion in debt and $400 billion in deficit. When we have those strong values and a Canada-first approach, we can do that. This is not what we have seen from the current administration.
What we need going forward is to have the foresight and confidence to begin this committee. We have seen great success with the Canada-China committee. Let us look to the future with positivity and co-operation. Our relationship with our best friend to the south deserves it, and Canadians deserve it.