Mr. Chair, that is an excellent question. There are probably a number of factors that go into that. I think the fundamental flaw was a decision made in the late 1980s, where it was decided that we would more closely integrate the Canadian economy into the United States' economy.
At that time, again, as I said, New Democrats felt that this was the wrong course of action. Although, obviously, our long border, our geographic proximity and all of those various factors mean we are always going to be very close trading partners with our partners to the south, to the extent possible, we needed the government to be pivoting our economy away from the United States, just in case a moment like today ever occurred. I think it was naive beyond belief in the 1980s and 1990s to think that the United States would always be benevolent and that they would always subordinate their interests to Canada's. I think we are learning that this is not the case. Donald Trump's “put America first” policy means that Canadians are second. What we have to do now is correct that.
Why the government fails to recognize that is beyond me, but unfortunately, Canadian workers and Canadian communities are paying the price for that lack of foresight now. The question for Canadians is, what do we do now? Let us invest in our country now. Let us not make the same mistake. Let us become more self-sufficient, get more value from our raw resources, build more things here, diversify our trade relationships and make Canada a stronger, independent, sovereign economy like we should have done 40 years ago.