Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to the opposition in the House. People may think I am talking about the Bloc or the Reformers. No, I am talking about the Liberals. If it looks like opposition, talks like opposition and smells like opposition, then it must be opposition.
The Liberals have pretty well abdicated leadership and have vacated the role of promoting real solutions to Canada's problems. The Reformers on the other hand are acting like government by proposing real, workable, common sense solutions.
It was the Reform Party which proposed a clear response to the Quebec referendum. The Liberals caught up about a week later. We have urged since the beginning that it is most important to set real targets on balancing the budget. We hope they will catch up soon.
The Liberals spend more time criticizing Reformers than they spend promoting their own proposed legislation because they do not seem to have any. The most significant evidence is that they are now filibustering their own bills. While the important issues of the nation go unnoticed, the Liberals are talking endlessly on the few trivial bills now before the House.
The Liberals may not be ready to govern but the Reformers are.