Mr. Speaker, the hon. member opposite is at it again with his emotional blackmail.
A debate at least two-months long has already been held on the referendum. At times, it was quite intense, very emotional. We heard from both sides, supporters of the yes camp and supporters of the no camp, those who were for Canada and those who were against Canada, those who wanted to give Canada a chance and those who did not.
Those who wanted to give Canada a chance won. The democratic result of the referendum was a yes to giving Canada a chance. On the evening when the results were announced, I was out of the country, unfortunately, but I saw the Leader of the Opposition on television. It was a very emotional moment. I stayed up all night and watched the Leader of the Opposition on CNN International as he said: "The democratic result of the referendum must be respected".
Interestingly that what the opposite of what Mr. Parizeau had said when he chose not to respect the results. At the time, the Leader of the Opposition and leader of the yes camp in Quebec said that the referendum results were to be respected. But what is happening today? Just the opposite. No respect for the Quebec referendum results; total disregard for the basic principle of democracy in Quebec, in Canada and in every international standard.
Nowhere else in the world do you have a group like the one we have here in our federal Parliament, a Parliament representing the people of Canada, Canadians from coast to coast.
In no other country in the world do you see people like the members across the way, rise on their feet and announce with great pride their plans to tear apart the best country in the world. They want to tear apart and break up a great country, a fantastic country.
The Prime Minister said, and my colleagues on this side also said so time and time again: this is not going to happen, because the best country in the world just cannot be broken up. What the government decided to do and managed to do is to present concrete proposals, and we expect opposition members to act with common sense, to respond with common sense, to respect the democratic result of the referendum, to sit down at the table and to negotiate honestly, without any hypocrisy, and to stop using the words "sovereignism" and "independance". They should talk in a positive way, saying that Quebecers voted to give Canada a chance.
Then we would have a real debate. Then we would really be able to talk face to face. So, I ask my colleague if it would not be better for him and for his colleagues of the Bloc to sit down with the federal government and to tell us what they really want. They are not satisfied with that, but what do they want exactly? They want to put that in the Constitution, but they do not say so. They do not dare say what makes sense.
What I have heard today is nothing but blackmail, a history lesson, another explanation of what happened 20 years ago. Several members of that party voted against the Meech Lake accord and the Charlottetown accord. I want to ask the member-