International Trade  Mr. Speaker, in the statistics that my friend raised it is interesting that the highest percentage increase in trade comes with those countries that we do not have trade agreements with, China and Hong Kong. That speaks to some flaws in the current neoliberal trade template that

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, New Democrats believe in open and progressive trade. We believe in negotiating new market access for our exporters to unlock good jobs here in Canada. We believe in promoting value-added industries to raise standards of living and create benefits for all Canadians an

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, for Canadians watching, what we are dealing with here is the finding from the Speaker that there has been a prima facie case of privilege. The common practice in this House, as described by former clerks of this House, is to refer that matter to committee for furthe

Canada Post  Mr. Speaker, I and my colleague from Vancouver East recently hosted a community town hall to hear our constituents' views about Canada Post's plan to end home delivery and double the price of stamps. A standing-room-only crowd attended and expressed unanimous opposition to these

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, under the government, Canada's export performance has been in long-term decline and it continues to suffer. December figures reveal an even worse trade deficit than expected, now $1.7 billion, enough to knock a full point off our GDP in the fourth quarter, and we ha

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, the minister should apologize for a $62-billion current account deficit in this country. According to the Bank of Canada, poor export performance is a major driver of our slow economic growth, and this means Conservative policies are costing us good, middle-class jo

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to represent the great riding of Vancouver Kingsway where, after constituents witnessed their elected member cross the floor to sit on the other side within two weeks of being elected in 2006, there was an explosion of anger in my riding and a real co

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for the wonderful job she has been doing representing the justice file in this country and for helping to build a progressive, responsible justice policy for us. I was going to joke and say that every time I rise in the House,

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, hope springs eternal. We on this side of the House believe in a well-financed government. We think Canadians see an important role for government to play, particularly when it comes to enforcing basic rights and freedoms in our country. The ability of businesses in

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to take this chance to tell the hon. member that it is a pleasure to work with him at committee. What is really important in this case is to make sure that we start collecting meaningful data not only to make sure that we understand the scope of the problem

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to stand today and speak to Bill C-8, An Act to amend the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. It is also a particular pleasure to stand in the House when parties are in general agreement about

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, first I would like to welcome the hon. member to the chamber and congratulate her on being appointed her party's international trade critic. Again, the issue here is not that Honduras is a small country and that it is poor; the issue is that Honduras is an undemocra

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, let us put this in context. Honduras is a country of about eight million and Canada of 35 million, so Canada is about four times the size. Imagine if the current Canadian government removed four members of the Supreme Court of Canada because it did not like the dec

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I raised the issues of countries like Iran, North Korea and Ukraine to illustrate examples of countries to which we would not consider extending preferential terms. Each country is unique; sometimes they are unique in degrees. However, when there is a country like H

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, of course the issue before this House is Bill C-20, which is a trade agreement that purports to extend special trade preferences to a particular country. Trade occurs every day in this world, and the hon. member is quite correct about that; but when we sign a trade