Madam Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's remarks, but I must take him up on the fact that the day after the Reform Party issued its alternative budget we were together on a radio program in Vancouver, at which point he hammered me because in that budget we had similarly proposed the maintenance of standards through co-operative agreements among provinces. This is very
consistent with Reform Party policy that we should have less power at the centre.
I will never forget the hon. member saying that as an expert in constitutional law he would tell me that it will not be possible for the central government to either create or enforce such arrangements because there is no leverage. I am now very pleasantly surprised to hear that he has come around to the policy the Reform Party had pronounced before this budget came out and which he now feels is doable.
I have a practical question for him. Even though the Reform Party says that it would support this kind of an effort, does the hon. member really believe that a maverick province like Alberta would slow down its efforts to privatize and rationalize medicare by for example allowing more of the services to be provided by the private sector? Does he believe he could get from Alberta agreement of the nature he thinks is necessary if even at the present time, when there is a threat of withholding funds, this province, according to the minister, apparently is doing all those nasty things?