Mr. Speaker, I note our hon. colleague has just said, and, very much to the point, I think, that the aim of the bill was never to invade Quebec's jurisdiction, and I believe him. I do not think the ministers opposite and our Liberal colleagues spend their time trying to think of ways to create bills to invade Quebec's jurisdictions.
That is absolutely true. I think their aim is probably to come up with good bills that will apply to all Canadians, in Canada's best interest. I am not questioning this, but the effect of the bill is to invade Quebec's jurisdictions-there is no way round it. Even Daniel Johnson, a Quebec federalist, agrees.
All this, because, on the whole, Canada is pursuing an orderly and intelligent course of development, which obliges it to centralize its powers. Mr. Trudeau recently stated that Canada cannot be decentralized any more than it is, because it is the most decentralized confederation.
Clearly, in order to become a strong country, Canada must centralize its powers in Ottawa, and this is in fact what the government is doing.
The effect of this centralization of powers in Ottawa is to rob Quebec of its powers. This is Canada's big problem. We have two sets of jurisdiction pursuing different interests for the most part. This has not been so obvious until now, because the Quebecers we sent to the House were lost in parties like the Conservative or the Liberal Party, where they were in the minority and where they were entitled to speak in the House only to toe the party line.
Now there is the Bloc Quebecois, which truly represents the interests of Quebecers and is truly in keeping with Quebec's history. This position is being defended not only by the sovereignists, but has been defended by events in Quebec since 1950 and earlier. The position has been defended by Quebec's premiers, whatever their political stripe-federalist or sovereignist.
There was Maurice Duplessis, who said, on Quebecers' behalf, "Rendez-moi mon butin à Ottawa", calling for the return of the province's powers, and he got them too. There was Jean Lesage, who started the Quiet Revolution, and talked of "Maîtres chez nous". What did he mean? He realized we did lack some of the tools we needed for our development. Then there was Daniel Johnson, Sr., who said "Égalité ou indépendance", and yet he was not a sovereignist. Toward the end of his term of office, he realized that it was absolutely necessary for Quebec to retain its powers and-if possible-obtain new ones for its economic and political survival. In this ever-changing political environment, René Lévesque managed to launch the sovereignist movement. This movement is still influential; it has led to the presence in this House members of the Bloc Quebecois, which is representative of Quebec.
Of course, there are representatives of Quebec within the Liberal Party. But these are isolated cases. Quebec is represented by the Bloc quebecois. I know that Canada needs to centralize its powers. I would like to ask my colleague a simple question. Does not he think that it is time-I know that the Prime Minister has said or at least implied, maybe not to us, but to Quebecers, that he might decentralize Canada or some minor services, when we know perfectly well-