Mr. Speaker, once again I am puzzled by some of the comments of yet another Liberal.
It seems as though Reformers do not have parents who are in need of OAS. It seems as though Reformers do not understand what it is to be responsible for 80-year old people, that Reform-
ers somehow do not have friends and acquaintances who are falling through the cracks of our economic cycle.
It seems as though we live in a vacuum and only those opposite have a way of understanding. I am sorry. We do have parents in their elderly years who depend on OAS. We do have people in our families who receive GIS. We do have people in our families and acquaintances who require child care. To characterize the Reform Party as not knowing or not understanding is just beyond my capability to understand.
Perhaps I could help this member understand why these people are in that position, why they are dependent on the social welfare and the social safety net in the country. It is because the spending of the government is destroying our ability to be able to provide for them. That is why we came forward with the plan today.
I find it really unfortunate that this member, along with many others, would choose to interpret the Reform document from some kind of weird perspective, as if we had landed from another planet. We represent the people in our constituencies. We represent people in this member's constituency. I had the privilege of conducting a couple of town hall meetings and getting input from people in his constituency. I reflect many of the values of many of his constituents.
With respect to the issue of learning, I would like to ask the member if he has had an opportunity of taking a look through our document to page 47 where we show our method of lowering cash transfers but giving the provinces cash points. In fact, the amount of funding available for health and for education under our scheme actually increases.
This is not cut and slash. This is a realistic budget which is more than I can say for the pipe dream that the government is continuing to give to us.