Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member. I cannot get over the fact that the member would try to compare the RRSP system, which is essentially a government created system, not for a large number of Canadians, with the Canada pension plan which is something that every Canadian has access to. It is probably only about 40 per cent of Canadians who have even the ability to participate in an RRSP plan.
I want to challenge the member on one particular program of government that I personally am very proud of, multiculturalism. I happen to believe that multiculturalism is one the jewels
of this country and because of people being very frivolous with it we are about to lose it.
For over 20 years, since 1971, we invested, promoted and encouraged Canadians to preserve their language and culture of origin. Today because of that investment by Canadian taxpayers we are recognized as one of the greatest trading countries on the planet. One of the reasons we are and that we have that trading advantage is that we have people who have preserved their language and culture of origin and it has given us very special access to these lucrative markets all around the world. Multiculturalism has also made us a tourism asset which if we ever got our marketing act together could be another envy of the world.
I think the Reform Party should be very careful when it is criticizing these programs and just wants to sweep them away. Renew them, eliminate waste, fiscal discipline, I support all of that. We would be absolute crazies if we did anything to take away our multiculturalism policy which is the envy right now. The United States is now in the process of spending billions of dollars to try to promote a multicultural reality because it had its melting pot theory. We were so far ahead of it and the Reform Party has missed the whole point.