At home and abroad

May 11, 2009

Stockwell Day’s Weekly Commentary

May 11th, 2009 – The annual lobster attack hit us again this year. That's right, the Lions Club in Logan Lake once again hosted the amazing Lobster dinner in the arena.  Ticket sales max out at 500 people. 

For 35 bucks you get a fresh Atlantic lobster, flown in especially for the event, melted garlic butter, a sizzling steak cooked to your specs, baked potato, salad, bun, Black Forest cake, coffee, no-host bar, free pop and juice and a DJ spinning tunes on a great sound system.  Such a deal and the Lions still manage to make money on the whole thing.

Talking about local groups, hats off to M & M Meats for their annual fund raising BBQ for research dollars in the fight against Crohn's Disease.  I got to flip burgers with the Okanagan Motorcycle Association who were also helping out at the event. Great people, beautiful bikes.  

And hey, when's the last time you watched 14 year old girls kicking soccer balls around?  I was the brunt of their attack as I stood in nets at the community soccer clinic put on by the Glenfir School in Summerland on Saturday.  I don't know who taught those girls how to kick but I'm telling you it was not a fun time in goal.  Well done ladies!

Earlier in the week I was in Prague with the PM. He was signing the official beginning of negotiations with the European Union (27 countries) for a free trade deal with Canada.  Various Canadian governments have been trying to get this going for years so it felt good to be there for the signing.  Once again our PM was front and centre on the world stage, promoting Canadian products and services and leading the discussions on how to get through this economic downturn.

We did a joint study with the EU which showed that a free trade deal would mean an extra $12 Billion in annual exports from Canada to the EU countries. That means jobs and opportunities right here at home.

It wasn't all happy news this week. In Parliament, MP's from all parties raised concerns about the fact that over 12 countries have put a ban on Canadian pork products because of the H1N1 virus.  As International Trade Minister I engaged the countries involved by direct phone calls and urgent e-mails.  I let them know in clear and certain terms that this flu cannot be spread by meat products and that they must drop their bans. In the week ahead we'll continue to push hard on this.

Regular readers of this column will know that I have a bit of a crusade going against the media practice of maximizing the negative and minimizing the positive.  This week's example is huge. Were you aware that this week the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) broke through the magic level of ten thousand?

If you weren't aware, don't feel badly. It didn't get much front page coverage.  As a matter of fact the Post was the only large paper that had it as headlines.

Just to put it in perspective, breaking the 10 thousand ceiling has only happened 3 times this entire decade and yet this week's breakthrough got little coverage.  Mark my words, if the market had dropped a few points instead of jumping upwards it would have been hugely reported. A little balance would be nice.

The only thing cooler than negative headlines has been the not normal cool weather this spring.  The consolation we have here in the beautiful Okanagan and Nicola Valleys is the fact that as usual we continue to be warmer than the rest of Canada which is also going through a longer than usual cool period.  Let's hope things move up this weekend.

Next week I'd like to tell you why they like us (Canada) so much in places like Lithuania, Latvia and Romania. 

Oh, one more thing. By the time you read this I have no idea who will be where in the Playoffs. Sooo, just for the record...Go Canucks!