Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of issues, one which is close to every Reformer's heart, the issue of referendums. Referendums are one way of determining in a very final way what the people in the country want to do as far as taxes, expenses, priorities, things they want to get a handle on such as capital punishment issues, things that are burning in the nation's craw, so to speak.
I have no problem whatsoever with squaring the idea of listening to the people. A couple of days ago, and this is not a referendum, polls indicated 90 per cent of people want action on social policy reform. When do they want it? We could start the chant: when do they want it?-now. When are they asking for it?-now. It has been a year and nothing has happened.
If you were to go to the people and ask if they were prepared for a change, if you wanted to go, if people wanted to initiate a referendum, they would approve massive changes now.
What they will not approve is the other side of the equation where the Minister of Finance continues to fudge on whether to tax RRSPs. Take that to a referendum. People would say absolutely not, reduce government spending, that is how we are going to handle this deficit problem.
I have no trouble figuring it out or relying on the people in the country through the use of a referendum. Referendums, I think, will back up what the Reform Party has been saying all along which is that people want control of the debt and deficit and they want it now. They expect the government to control them through cutting expenses, not through additional tax increases.
Not only would they often approve such things in a referendum but it would give that impetus to the government to say not only do they want it to in a poll, they ordered it to do it and what could be more unifying to the country than that force from coast to coast saying we should get on with the necessary changes now. Referendums are not a problem. We could certainly do that easily.
As far as having creative ideas, all ideas are welcome when a community goes through massive changes. All ideas have to be brought forward on the table. In the paper on jobs and growth pensions are not even mentioned. That is what the citizens of Elliot Lake would like to have more discussion on than what this paper offers.