Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to talk about glaciers. I do not intend to talk about all of the aspects of C-85 either.
I heard a number of comments prior to question period, particularly from the member for St. Boniface, which I believe have to be answered. Accusations were made that many of us on this side of the House ran for some fairly questionable reasons. We have heard that a lot of times. Maybe we should just go back and review very quickly why most of us on this side of the House ran and I am sure on that side of the House also ran.
Certainly we were concerned about the debt and deficit. It is only fair to say that when we looked back at 1984 we thought that a change had to be made. We were at $180 billion. We had someone who promised he would take care of it. By 1988 he did take care of it. We were at $375 billion, and we were told it was still a problem. By the time we got to 1993 we were at $489 billion and then we really knew we did have a big problem.
An awful lot of us got involved back in that 1988 period because we saw not only this debt and deficit, but we saw corruption, mismanagement, waste, and a government that was not listening to the people. We saw that by not listening it meant that a message would come down from on high and go back to the riding and we would be told what was good for us from the party.
The message was always going the wrong way, and the people desperately wanted to be heard. What they wanted to be heard was that they wanted to end so many of those things. They wanted to end the perks and the gold plated pension plan, which became a battle cry for citizens out there who were looking at that and asking what it meant.
They also were fighting the arrogance this place had. I would say that a lot has improved here, but certainly what we saw in question period today was not an improvement. We had a question answered in another language and everyone was laughing and cheering about it. That is arrogance and disrespect for this place. If that sort of thing continues the people will speak again. We can count on that.
We have problems in this country. The debt and deficit of course are getting worse. We have a criminal justice system that is in decay. The people are demanding change. They are asking about young offenders, parole, victims' rights, the time taken by the courts, the crime and the law and order out there. They are asking what the government is doing and if it is listening.
Instead, the government is fooling around with things like gun control and its own selfish, greedy pensions. That is what the government is wasting time on in this House. The public is listening and evaluating what this House is doing on that matter. They demand parliamentary reforms. They demand that we do something about that other place over there, that waste of money and time that we have. They demand that they are able to recall and fire an MP who does not do his job. They demand that they can talk on social issues and that we bring them back to them and speak for them. They demand in fact that people have the right in this place to have free votes. They demand that if they tell their member to vote against something a party whip should not be able to whip him into shape so that he has to go along with party lines or lose his committee position and position in this place because they go against the party, the almighty party from Ottawa that tells you what you have to do when you get home.
The government is not listening.