Mr. Speaker, I think that we have wasted a great deal of time talking about big national issues this morning when we should be concentrating on regional development. It is not in our best interests, in dealing with such an issue, to provoke one another. I am not suggesting that the hon. member is doing that, but we have heard this morning some remarks that were not particularly edifying.
However, on that point, I do not think that we are a cause, but rather a consequence. Imagine, after eight or nine years of Conservative rule, after the GST, after the scandals, after all the Conservative government inflicted upon us, Quebecers still remembered 1982 and the Trudeau government and they did not trust the Liberal Party. The Liberals keep talking about the red book. Quebecers rejected the red book in the last election. During the campaign, every single analyst in English Canada seemed to take pleasure in saying that there would not even be ten members of the Bloc in this House after the October election.
The people from Quebec have a very good memory and, in that respect, some great measures have to be taken. In committee, I had an opportunity to talk with the clerk of the Privy Council, who told me about the need to strike a balance after Charlottetown. There is no proposal on the table. Where is that balance between the regions and the federal government? The parliamentary secretary who got all worked up about Quebec's independence a few moments ago-I do not want to mention his name-has a vision of a united Canada. He is entitled to his vision, which I respect, but that vision has been rejected and continues to be rejected. How are we going to strike a balance between English Canada, which thought that the Charlottetown Accord gave Quebec too much power, and Quebec, which thought that the offers on the table were nothing but crumbs?