Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from Okanagan Centre for being happy and sad at once.
I am disgusted with Bill C-110 with its proposed constitutional veto. However, I am pleased as always to honour my commitment to represent the people of the great riding of Yellowhead. They are against this bill. I am against it. I am proud to denounce it here today on their behalf.
The people of Yellowhead are certainly not opposed to national unity. They are not what some prime ministers have foolishly called them, enemies of Canada. A few months ago I commissioned a scientific poll and about 70 per cent of my constituents want Canada to stay together.
What they are opposed to, which came through loud and clear in the poll results, is the strategy of saving Canada by appeasement, appeasing the separatists in Quebec. They overwhelming oppose the notion of Quebec as a distinct society and oppose sovereignty association.
As a member of a caucus which listens to the people instead of lecturing them, I do more than take polls. I go on tours in my riding to hear what the constituents are saying and how they are saying it. I just finished doing that again. I want to tell everyone here what they said. That is my job. Some of the members opposite would do well to remember that is their job as well.
My constituents told me overwhelmingly they do not understand, and quite frankly neither do I, why we are even talking about caving into Quebec, why distinct society and veto powers are even on the table. People in my riding are so sick of this never ending debate. I hear that some are wondering if there is anything they can do to kick Quebec out of Canada. That is how angry they are. That is how frustrated they are.
It is not ordinary Quebecers they are sick of. It is this constant giving in to the whining and snivelling Quebec politicians, both separatist and federal old style politicians. This weak-kneed policy of giving the spoiled child of Confederation whatever it wants is driving my constituents to despair. I call on my colleagues opposite to listen to the people and stop this policy of appeasement before it is too late.
My constituents want, indeed demand that a line be drawn in the sand. This line should signal a few things: no more favours, no more appeasement, 10 equal provinces, not 9 provinces and Quebec.
I do not think I pay my constituents any great compliment when I say they are smarter than most politicians, especially when I look at the government side across. People are saying that 30 years of appeasement to Quebec has failed miserably. People are saying that 30 years of government by politicians, of politicians and for politicians has left the people of Yellowhead as disgusted as the people of Quebec with the way things are done in this place.
The people are saying stop already. Enough is enough. Treat everyone as equals. Treaty everyone as grown ups, not as some spoiled children. Treat everyone fairly, equally.
The Trudeau Liberals, the Mulroney Tories and now this Liberal administration drifting aimlessly have virtually ruined this once great country. In my riding it is pretty common observation that the three prime ministers responsible for this disaster have all been from Quebec. Yes, it took them only 25 years to virtually bring the country to its knees, to almost wreck it, 25 years of tearing apart our country which took real nation builders centuries of toil and tears and sweat to build; 25 years thrown to the wind.
The common thread here is that people in most parts of the country, the ordinary taxpaying public, the public that pays the bills for big oppressive governments has had it. It will not take it any more. People will no longer sit idly by and watch the concessions, the favours, the appeasements to sell out the country to the separatists in Quebec.
Concessions to Quebec continue to march forward with the government. It is not only with the distinct society motion and the Quebec veto, the matters currently before the House, it is Bill C-89, the act that supposedly privatized Canadian National Railway; major concessions to Quebec by statute. CN's head office must stay in Montreal and by statute the heavy handed provisions of the very undemocratic Official Languages Act must prevail.
I will not go into the litany of favours given to Quebec during the Trudeau-Mulroney years or, more aptly stated, the Trudoney years. One glaring example comes to mind, and it especially sticks in the
craw of westerners, the CF-18 contract assigned to Winnipeg but which went to Quebec. Air Canada is another example.
Bill C-110 really takes the cake. This will turn out to be the mother of all concessions and appeasements granted since Confederation. The bill enshrines in legislation, not mere discussion or some off the cuff remark, the ultimate in legislative lunacy. It even exceeds the lunacy of Bill C-68, the gun control bill.
Bill C-110 gives the separatist government of Quebec on a silver platter a veto over all future constitutional change. In effect, there can be no change. With this bill the Constitution would be buttoned up in a strait-jacket because it is the intent of the Prime Minister to eventually entrench this loathsome legislation in the constitution.
The Liberal government is so sadly lacking in leadership, as evidenced last night on the Prime Minister's town hall meeting. Even the $1 billion subsidized federal institution, the CBC, could not make the Prime Minister look good.
The Liberals are stuck with another Chamberlain when what they really need is a Churchill. Look at the ranks of the Liberals. There is obviously no Churchill forthcoming, only little bitty Chamberlains.
With this bill and a dozen or so others the Liberal government, come the next election, will be gone. For a lot of Canadians that cannot be too soon.
