Madam Speaker, employment equity is about hiring people on the basis of colour, gender and other demographic characteristics.
Who cares if one is female or male, black or white, brown or polka-dotted? We do not. We only want to make sure that when
people go for jobs they are treated on the basis of merit. That is all that counts in getting a job. That is all we care about other than providing and ensuring there are laws against discrimination.
Regarding what I said about the United States, California has employment equity laws. We do not want them. I point out to the hon. member that we should learn from the mistake they made in the United States. They are trying to rectify it. We should learn from their enforcement of employment equity in California that it did not work. Let us learn from them. We should show Americans that we are different from them and better than them by not partaking in it.
Our goals are the same. In some ways the goals of the government and the Reform Party with respect to the overarching theory are the same. We do not want discrimination. We are vehemently opposed to discrimination on any ground.
The flaw in the government is that employment equity engenders discrimination. By its very nature it is saying that one group of people cannot compete on the basis of merit and should be elevated over another group. That is discrimination against the other group. That is unfair. We cannot right the wrongs of historical injustice by creating discriminatory laws now. We cannot right the wrongs of the past by tipping the scales in favour or against a group.
We must create a level playing field, treat people on the basis of merit and have anti-discriminatory laws to create a country of which we can all be proud.