He won in Bonaventure, but he lost in the Magdalen Islands. Close to 60 per cent of the voters on the
Islands voted against him. There is one Liberal member of the Quebec legislature, Georges Farrah, however, and one in Ottawa, who barely got 40 per cent. That really requires a colossal amount of nerve.
I was teaching ecology at the Disraeli comprehensive high school when several million dollars were spent there. The Liberals were not in government at the time, of course; it was the member for Sherbrooke who was acting as Minister of the Environment. He had organized a television show in prime time Sunday evening, coast to coast, paid for by the taxpayers, on the Green Plan, six billion dollars over five years. That turned into five billion over six years, and got watered down and watered down, until today no trace remains. Nobody knows what became of the Green Plan.
In the schools we showed videotapes of it, which provided our young students with some glimmer of hope about the environment and sustainable development. Now it has been junked. In the waste basket. And that is where the environmental commissioner is headed.
The intent is to water the thing down so much that it will end up in the waste basket and thousands, hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent and-
I would like to tell you about an example given by a friend from East Broughton, who said to me on the day after the referendum "It is a bit like bringing water from several kilometres away. You start with a big pipe and you end up with a tiny one at the other end; there is surface tension, leaks here and there along the way". We know what it is like in the federal pipeline system with its leaks here and there, you get to the end of the pipe and there is hardly any water coming out, no water pressure, nothing left. Everything got lost along the way.
It is the same thing, what we are asking of you, my friends across the way. "Mind your own business, but mind it well. And when something is not your business, not within your area of jurisdiction, then butt out and stay where you belong".
It is true we all breathe the same air, we all drink the same water and we all walk on the same ground. When you came to Montreal on October 27 to tell us you loved us, at taxpayers' expense, of course, we let you breathe our air. When we come to Ontario, you let us breathe your air.
This is how we want to live. So stay home, and when it is a provincial matter for Quebec, mind your own business. We are quite capable of minding our own business, better than you are.
An agreement was signed with the United States to develop the Great Lakes. It is working out fine. We get a report every two years. That is fine. It is having no effect on the United States' environment. You are not going to meddle with American environmental jurisdictions, why do you want to meddle with Quebec's? We will not tolerate it. That time is long gone.
When your jurisdictions are involved, look after them, but keep out of our space.
Having said that, I again call for an apology from the hon. member for Davenport, who showed disrespect for my colleague for Lotbinière.