Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. friend for his question. There is no question there is instability when we are talking about the political liability of Canada.
Let me refer to something which appeared in the Globe and Mail today: ``Quebec's economy would collapse like a house of cards after a yes vote in the referendum, and Canada's would not fare much better, a respected economist predicts in a new book. Marcel Côté, a senior partner with Groupe Sécor and a former economic adviser to Canadian Prime Ministers and Quebec premiers, writes that a sovereign Quebec would be pummelled by an unprecedented convergence of negative economic factors''. Of course it would not help Canada either.
We have some negative forces, one being separation. It hurts the average citizen who tries to borrow money. It hurts government but it hurts the person who has a $100,000 mortgage and has to pay a higher premium. It is not assisted any by the Reform Party which is trying to say our economy is unstable.
We are not a third world country. The member is gravely misinformed if he believes we are. We are a country that was judged by the United Nations for the second time as the best country in the world in which to live. That is what Canada is.