Mr. Speaker, last week NDP leader Alexa McDonough called on the federal Liberal government to stand up for 16,000 western Canadian jobs by being a partner in the restructuring of Canadian Airlines, by working with rather than against Canadian employees, and by revising an air transport regime that causes wasteful and expensive duplication of flights, while eliminating service to outlying communities.
Put simply, the Liberals created this mess when they were in power in the early 1980s by uncritically and gullibly embracing deregulation as the great panacea, the be all and end all for Canadian air transport. I remember only too well the current Minister of Foreign Affairs gushing about all the benefits that deregulation would bring and Tory Mazankowski followed the Liberal lead.
It is time to face up to the fact that deregulation has not worked as it was supposed to and act accordingly.