Mr. Speaker, after this budget, I would worry about the next opinion polls. If they want to talk about the fact that I was a Conservative, we will talk about it. And I may remind you that the hon. member in the Chair today, who is a member of your party, was a member of the Conservative Party when I was. However, he had the guts to leave. He was just a backbencher, but when the GST came out, with some of its applications, he crossed the floor.
I may remind you that when I was a Conservative, I voted against my government on a number of occasions. I voted against Bill C-22, which went against the interests of Quebec farmers. I walked the picket line with postal workers when my government wanted to pass legislation against the postal workers and letter carriers. I often voted against my government, and when that government intended to go back on the promises I made to my constituents, I had the guts to cross the floor.
Would you? You just went back on your own promises. Would you have the guts to vote no and cross the floor to say: I will no longer sit with this government? Yes, I was a Conservative. Yes, I am proud I left and had the guts to do it. I wonder if you would.
A government that attacks the unemployed the way you are doing, with $4 billion in cutbacks, including $1 billion at the expense of the unemployed-not cheaters but bona fide unemployed workers, as I said earlier-is hypocritically passing the buck to the provinces. Shortening the unemployment period by several weeks will put people who are no longer eligible for unemployment insurance benefits on welfare and will cost Quebec $280 million annually. In the rest of Canada, this will cost about $600 million.
This comes after the government made a formal commitment to conduct full public consultations on social services before making a decision. And yet, the strategy of the ministers of finance seems to be to proceed regardless. In concluding, as I believe my time has expired, I would say that giving this minister of finance responsibility for the finances of Quebec and Canada is worse than letting Dracula run the Red Cross Blood Bank.