Mr. Speaker, my support for virtual heckling is well known because it allows these kinds of substantive exchanges.
I also want to recognize the excellent work of our shadow minister from Kelowna on the bill. I had the opportunity of door knocking with her a little during her campaign and was amazed by the three and four-storey driveway we had to walk up and down in certain parts of Kelowna. That is quite a feat to get here. She has had to tread much greater heights than many of us in the flatter parts of the country, and she is doing great work leading our response on the trade file.
We see the government's approach to trade unfortunately characterized by delay and challenged by its inability to manage and prioritize its legislative calendar. We have been pushing in the House, specifically around a timeline coming up at the end of March where it was critical for the government to move things forward. We are having this debate tonight because it was the leadership of our Conservative caucus pushing forward on the need to prioritize this legislation in light of that timeline.
The government is very clearly trying to position itself for a spring election that it seems to want, but nobody else in the country seems to want. Therefore, it is calling these different bills for short periods of time, at a time, without any sort of focus on specific legislative items, especially ones that clearly are a priority.
In the interests of addressing a real need for Canadians, the Conservatives proposed that we have this debate tonight, at a time when we do not normally have debates, to try to move these things forward. Unlike the Liberals, frankly, whose approach to the legislative calendar seems entirely informed by politics, the Conservatives were thinking about the public interest in the process of really the urgency of moving things forward before the end of March.
As one British politician observed, “even the turkeys won't be able to prevent Christmas.” The timeline was coming and that is why, thanks to the leadership of our shadow minister as well as our House leadership team, we are moving this legislation forward. It follows naturally from our party's deep commitment to the importance of our ties with the U.K., of our ties with other CANZUK partners and recognizing the importance of Canada's position as a global trading nation.
Our leader has from the beginning championed the benefits of strengthening our ties with like-minded CANZUK countries, our relationship with the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, four out of five of our Five Eyes partners we collaborate with on security. We have expanded our trading relationships through the TPP, for example, which was negotiated under the Conservatives and gave us trading access with Pacific Rim nations.
There is more work we can do to further expand and strengthen our trade ties. I am very proud of the record of our previous—