Mr. Speaker, in politics, an undeniable sign that a government or an elected representative is out of touch with reality is when they show contempt and arrogance. In his remarks, the member said that the Bloc Québécois could not have any good reason to call today for a special debate on gasoline prices.
Is there one person in Quebec or Canada who feels that the current situation in terms of gasoline prices is reasonable and acceptable? Is there a willingness to restore Quebec's trade balance through lesser dependency on oil? People are coming to us, saying that because of the price of heating oil, they have been unable to make ends meet this winter and that the government should be able to do something about that. We have volunteers who are not getting reasonable reimbursements for their travel expenses raising these questions. We have representatives from transportation companies coming to us saying that things have gone far enough and that we have to do something.
How can my hon. colleague suggest that we were solely motivated by electioneering in calling for this debate when we took the time to bring before the House this issue of great concern across Quebec and Canada?
Will he correct his statement and put forward truly constructive proposals? He went on and on for 20 minutes about a Liberal proposal that is not on the table at present. Can he, who sits on the government side, come up with at least one practical suggestion and recognize that tonight's debate is fully justified because of all the people who are affected by rising gas prices?