The news that Conservative leader Stephen Harper is touting the importance of concluding trade agreements with the European Union and India is, by and large, good news. It's good because ever since the epic free-trade election of 1988, it has been unusual for politicians to speak out in favour of liberalizing trade during an election campaign. The "trade" issue in recent elections has consisted mainly of all the parties falling over each other to promise not to do anything that would have the slightest impact on our protectionist policies in the dairy and poultry sectors.

However, it leaves open a key question. Published in The Globe and Mail online.