Mr. Speaker, the tour organized by women for the Yes side in Quebec allowed thousands of women to find out about the choices in the upcoming referendum: on the one hand, a federal system in which unemployed workers and welfare recipients are seen as lazy and higher education is reserved for the rich; and on the other, a sovereign Quebec where women can help meet the challenges of a modern society attuned to their needs and priorities.
For the increasingly numerous sovereignist women in Quebec, history has clearly shown how federalism has become a barrier to collective growth. And this government's policies are not likely to make them change their minds.
What Quebec women want above all is a blueprint for society that will finally meet their aspirations. The side in favour of change is proposing such a blueprint. Women see sovereignty as an
instrument of social change that will make it possible to fulfil all their hopes.