Mr. Speaker, last week I drove 3,300 kilometres around Beaver River conducting my fall tour. I talked to hundreds of people at town hall meetings, school classrooms and in my office.
People are concerned about the government's bills on MP pensions, employment equity, gun control and so on. The thing they asked more questions about rather than anything else was the referendum. Everybody in the meeting asked now what.
This morning we find out that now what means another referendum. People at home recognize the distinctiveness of Quebec with regard to language, culture and civil law. Because the term distinct society is undefined they think it would be a lawyer's delight to see it enshrined in the Constitution as it would be wide open to
interpretation. I even had a Liberal supporter ask me what part of no the Liberals did not understand in the Charlottetown accord.
We must move forward to the new Canada, not backward to failed ideas and plans. They did not work. They are not working and will not work. Let us scrap the unity committee of politicians and let the people speak.