Madam Speaker, the hon. member used the word manipulating several times, as in manipulating facts and figures in our analysis of the budget that has just been brought down, and as in political manipulating with respect to the referendum. I may remind the hon. member that in Canada, political manipulation is what happened in 1982 when the Canadian Constitution was patriated against the will of a unanimous National Assembly in Quebec. The terms of the contract that binds us were changed. That is political manipulation.
I would like to ask the hon. member, since we have nothing to gain by staying in Confederation and, eventually, we will have a referendum, whether he thinks the budget that was brought down yesterday is likely to help matters?