Mr. Abbott:

It has not been sitting since January; it does not sit continuously.

Mr. Diefenbaker:

Then it should not take so long to tell us what it has been doing. Let us know what it has determined. Trade is a major issue. We in parliament and the people of Canada generally have the right to know what is being done to preserve our markets and assure their continuance before they are irretrievably lost.

Surely the farmers of this country have a right to know what the hon. member for Melfort (Mr. Wright) has asked. They want to know what are the plans for agriculture, and what is being done to preserve our markets for agricultural products? These markets have been dwindling in recent months and have been preserved by the United States permitting the importation of certain Canadian farm products and of purchases made under ERP. What is going to happen if markets disappear to the dairy farmers of this country, to the cheese producers, to the bacon producers and the beef producers? What is going to happen to the wheat farmer should the United States, as it is now in a position to do, declare that wheat is a surplus with the resulting annihilation of prospective markets for the Canadian farmer?

The status of our agricultural markets today is very much what it was in 1928 and 1929. At that time the government of the day did nothing. Before this parliament is dissolved, some minister should place before the country the plans for the next three months. Trade is not a thing that can be dealt with by governor general's warrants. It calls for plans in advance and parliament should be made aware of those plans.

Representing a rural riding in Saskatchewan, I should like to have certain amendments to the Prairie Farm Assistance Act brought in. First we want the preservation of our markets and, second, we want assurance that everything wiil be done to improve the Prairie Farm Assistance Act to take care

Prairie Farm Assistance of drought conditions, grasshopper infestation and like calamities. This act should operate for the benefit of the small farmer, and I should like to suggest four amendments.

1. There should be an amendment whereby the area of qualification is reduced.

2. Provision should be made for the payment of allowances under the act to elderly couples or to the heads of families who are helpless or crippled and must hire others to carry on the farm operations. At the present time bonus payments are denied in such cases.

3. There should be amendments to cover areas along the Qu'Appelle valley in Saskatchewan where drought conditions year after year prevent any reasonable crops being harvested. However with a large part of the townships within those areas producing reasonably good crops, the residents in those areas are denied benefits under the act.

4. There should be a change in the set-up of the board of review to permit the board to exercise a degree of equity when reviewing decisions where the payment of the bonus to individuals has been denied under regulations. There are many instances where arbitrary rulings under the regulations deny justice to individuals who are entitled to it.

I shall bring before the house two resolutions-one from the council of the rural municipality of Loreburn, wherein the suggestion is made that, in so far as the small farmer is concerned whose crop of wheat is less than four bushels per acre, he should be entitled to the payment regardless of what the average may have been in other parts of the township; the other from the rural municipality of Arm River to the effect that, whereas the regulations under the P.F.A.A. require that eligible blocks in ineligible townships be of at least nine sections and rectangular in shape, an amendment should be introduced to the end that provision be made as far as possible for awards on an individual basis.

Farmers throughout Canada are asking from this government the reassurance that plans to maintain markets are being made, and that action is taking place that will assure them their markets. On the Saskatchewan plains there is a situation that the Minister of Finance (Mr. Abbott) must have seen as he passed through that province. Conditions there point to a repetition of the early 1930's, and everything possible should be done to the end that the bonus may be made available to as many farmers as have crop failures in order that they may be maintained upon the farm, and those farms kept in production.

Mr. G. A. Cruickshank (Fraser Valley):

did not intend to speak in this debate, but one of my kind friends opposite sent me a copy of the Peterborough Examiner of April 27, 1949. I presume Peterborough is a little town in Ontario. In that paper there is a picture, "Spring in Fraser Valley." Then there is a descriptive article which reads:

Spring came to the Fraser Valley in a blaze of glory, these daffodil fields with Mount Baker as a backdrop reveal. This photo shows the Paridon farm at Brander, B.C., thirty miles southeast of Vancouver. John von Paridon gathers the yellow flowers for shipment to B.C. and eastern markets.

I want to bring that out because of certain things that I have heard the hon. member for Lake Centre (Mr. Diefenbaker) say. I am a great admirer of the hon. member, and if I had had my way he would have been the leader over there instead of somebody else. When, however, he tells this pessimistic story about agriculture in Canada I want to say to the hon. member for Lake Centre that this government has done more for the farmers of Canada than any other government in the history of Canada.

Mr. Ferguson:

You cannot export daffodils.

Mr. Cruickshank:

I am surprised that my friend, the hon. member for Simcoe North (Mr. Ferguson), does not know that in the province of British Columbia the Fraser Valley riding exports daffodil bulbs to Holland.

Mr. Ferguson:

They are pretty hard to eat.

Mr. Cruickshank:

We ship them to Holland. I do not like the pessimistic way in which the hon. member for Lake Centre talks about agriculture in Canada. It never was in a better position than it is today, including my own riding, and I am prepared to fight the election on that issue.

Mr. Ferguson:

After the elections we will send you lilies from Ontario.

Mr. Abbott:

You had better keep them for yourself.

Mr. Cruickshank:

Possibly my friend may send me some, but he certainly will not be back here to bring them to me. I am tired of this idea that Canada is in the doldrums. We heard that from the leader of the opposition (Mr. Drew), this great authority on national defence, this great authority on aeroplane engines. I do not know what he is not an authority on, according to himself, but I want to tell him that he is not an authority on who will form the government of Canada for the next five years.

Mr. Ferguson:

The Conservatives. You know; why ask that question?

Mr. Cruickshank:

I do not know whether we are going to shout one another down.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Golding):

Order.

Mr. Cruickshank:

I am prepared to fight the election in my riding-

You had better be.

Mr. Cruickshank:

I believe when the C.C.F. have had to import a man to run against me from another riding I am pretty safe as far as they are concerned, and I am not worried particularly about the Tory opposition.

Mr. Michaud:

Who is?

Mr. Cruickshank:

I believe that unity in Canada is one of the foremost things. Therefore in order to appease the hon. member for Lake Centre, whom I greatly admire-I think he should be on this side of the house because he has all the brains on the other side-I am now going to speak in French. I do not like these interruptions, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Johnston:

You had better just table it.

(Translation):

Mr. Cruickshank:

Mr. Speaker, a man reports to heaven. St. Peter asks him what his profession is and he answers: "I am a psychiatrist." Very happy about it, St. Peter says: "Come in, my friend, you are just the man we need." The man enters and St. Peter whispers in his ear: "Just imagine, God the

Father is quite ill. He keeps on saying that He is George Drew."

(Text):