Mr. Speaker, I could not help but chuckle when the hon. member puffed out his chest and said he was not whipped, he did the right thing. Let him go back to his constituency in Ontario and I will challenge him to a public debate in his riding.
Who was he representing when he stood up and he turned his back on the sick and the dying in this country? Who was he representing? The reality is he was just propping up his Minister of Health.
He stands up and says that had it not been for the Minister of Health, earlier referred to by one of his colleagues as his hero, there would not have been money on the table. He knows that the only reason the federal government ponied up money was the Minister of Health had a legal opinion that said if we do not compensate those victims between 1986 and 1990, we will be forced to do so by the courts.
That is the reality and I wish the hon. member would stop talking from his talking points and start looking at the reality. He knows the reality is that the only reason the money was there was legal liability. It was not compensation based on compassion. The minister was looking at legal liability and damages and what he tried to do was contain the damage. But having said that, he inflicted political damage on himself.
Only because the Conservative premier in the province of Ontario has agreed to come forward with an additional $200 million, now the minister and the member have had to swallow themselves whole.