As you will have seen reported in the news, Peter Van Loan has been sworn in as the new minister of international trade replacing Stockwell Day who now moves to the treasury board portfolio.
Our first demands of the new minister are to:
– stop any further negotiations on the Canada-European Union trade agreement until there are public hearings and parliamentary debate on the proposed deal which is said to exceed NAFTA in scope:
– stop pursuing the Canada-US deal on procurement as an exemption to Buy American provisions in the United States;
– not re-introduce the enabling legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which was scuttled by the prorogation of Parliament.
Loan, the Member of Parliament for York-Simcoe in Ontario, is known for his aggressive ‘pitbull’ style in Question Period.
To get a further sense of the new trade minister, you can read his blog about his attendance at last year’s North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico at http://www.petervanloan.com/doc2009-08-19a.html.
In the coming days we will be delivering more than 6,000 letters to his office demanding that he release the full draft text of the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and hold public hearings before any negotiations on it continue.
If you want to contact him directly, his e-mail address is vanloan.p@parl.gc.ca.
More on the cabinet shuffle at http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/01/19/politics-cabinet-shuffle.html.
