Mr. Speaker, government programs and policies should help preserve and strengthen traditional families. Families are the basic unit of society. A strong family life is important to instilling good moral values and coping with the day to day pressures of living.
When I speak about traditional family values I do not disparage the loving and often heroic efforts of single or divorced parents. Nothing determines the shape of a child's life more powerfully than his or her values, beliefs and sense of right and wrong. It is the values parents teach their children that will determine a child's fate and our country's future. Families are the instrument through which values and traditions are passed from generation to generation.
As we celebrate the International Year of the Family let us all remember that it is up to each member of Parliament to fight for measures that recognize, promote and protect this traditional institution.