I am very pleased to be able to participate in this world parliamentary forum and extend my thanks to our Mexican hosts and Senator Leticia Borgesia in particular for organizing this event. As the Parliamentary Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, I am proud of the political fact that our party has always believed and advocated the idea that, as it says in the declaration of the International Parliamentary Network on the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, “another economic and trade paradigm is possible, which benefits the majorities of the populations all over the world.” I have been an MP for almost 25 years and unfortunately I have spent almost my whole political life contending against the neo-liberal paradigm.