Mr. Chair, I do not use name calling as any kind of tactic and I am not aware that he does either. I prefer not to comment on the tactics of others. I can only manage my own behaviour.
My colleague stated that according to his own reports the U.S. congress was ill informed. Our ambassador in Washington has worked tirelessly on the other major problem of softwood lumber and has spoken for Canadians with our U.S. counterparts.
I would like to emphasize that I and my colleagues in the House consider our neighbours across the border our friends. While we do have these unfortunate differences from time to time, we have to use due process to resolve them. I hope that our neighbours to the south will obey the results of due process as much as we in this country like to do.
On the question of playing hard ball, what does that mean? If it means following the rule of law to the letter, we do that here. We would expect our trading partners whether they are Americans or countries elsewhere to do the same. We always do that fairly. Having pitched baseball in the past, I like to believe that as average a player as I might have been, I at least played it as best I could. It was hard ball but it was played by the rules. Playing hard ball does not mean one plays unfairly and I do not include name calling as part of playing hard ball. Playing hard ball is simply sticking to the rules, making one's points, and encouraging one's opponents to do the same.
I and all my colleagues here call upon our American friends to follow due process. We ask them to look carefully at what we are doing on this file and listen to the majority of beef producers in the US who agree with my colleague's constituents and mine in the beef industry that the border should be opened. We should return to what we have come to know as a normal cattle trading industry in North America.