How we can protect ourselves so that everybody else who has no say in the House except through us will have to depend on the decisions made in the House.
The economy will rise or fall based on the decisions made in the House. We will or will not hit the wall based on the decisions made in the House, but we will look after ourselves. We will be all right, Jack. They will point the finger at us and say: "We elected you to run the country on our behalf. We wanted responsible government. We wanted honest government. We wanted a government that would provide jobs for us, education for us and a future for our children". That is why we are here. What have we done? We brought in Bill C-85 that will let us be rich for the rest of our lives.
This brings to mind a famous French queen who said: "Let them eat cake". We will be eating cake while we expect everybody else to get out there to try to find a job that will pay them an income so that one bread winner can go out to work and the other spouse can stay at home to raise a family. We do not even see that in Canadian any more. Jobs of that kind are few and far between. Yet there are MPs in the House who expect to retire in the lap of luxury and without having to work. Prior to the introduction of the bill there was one member who would have received $70,000-odd a year. I believe that continues to apply in some cases.
At age 55, without having to work, they will be able to live the rest of their lives in the lap of luxury without having to produce a single thing while Canadians will have to work hard, slave hard, do without and pay more taxes for us. I cannot justify it. I do not think any one of my Reform colleagues could justify it. They have spoken one after the other, saying they will not take the pension.
I will not take the pension. I cannot go back to St. Albert, stand before my constituents and say I will opt in, thank you very much, I appreciate the money. When they are in my office saying that they have no jobs, what am I supposed to say?