Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the remarks made by the hon. Leader of the Opposition. It is pure demagoguery. I said so during his speech earlier, but I repeat it now for the whole House to hear because this is how I feel about it.
I must say that quite extraordinary things were just said. We have just heard the Leader of the Opposition talk about new terms. The Leader of the Opposition, the expert in newspeak, as Mr. Orwell called it in his novel entitled 1984 , accused the government of using new terms. Members opposite, who are afraid to use the word separatism and use sovereignty instead, who do not want to hold a referendum unless they are sure of winning it, while rejecting federalism, talk about a federalist sovereignty, which means sovereignty with a federal parliament-you can see the distinction: a federalist sovereignty, but not federalism. That is the difference in the world according to the Leader of the Opposition.
He spoke of massive centralization, while social groups come to Ottawa to denounce what they describe as a restriction of federal powers resulting from Bill C-76. I say that they are both going too far. There are those who, like the Leader of the Opposition, are prone to exaggeration by nature and see the devil at work everywhere. While he, naturally, sees excessive federal presence just about everywhere, others, on the other hand- This is a very serious issue and if the members opposite think otherwise, maybe they should listen to something else than their leader's speech.
I have a question for the Leader of the Opposition. He denounced what he called national standards in child care.
I heard him speak in support of what reporter Chantal Hébert said. In his remarks, he supported her position, coming out against so-called national standards supposedly set in the bill on child care.
I wonder if he can think back to the election campaign in which he himself ran, in June 1988. Does he remember that there was a bill before the House at the time, a Conservative bill to establish a national child care system, and that he voted for this bill, that he went on to campaign with Mr. Mulroney and that, during the campaign, the public was told that the bill had to be dropped after third reading, after being adopted by the House, because the Senate had asked for one more day to consider the bill in committee? How could he get himself elected in a government that wanted to establish a system that he now accuses others of trying to impose?