Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member is concerned about direct answers he should talk to his leader. The last time I asked him a direct question about his party's stand on the turban issue with the RCMP, the leader of the Reform Party refused to answer. I am glad that some of the members have now brought this forward as an issue and they may deal with it at the next convention. If the member wants a direct answer he should start by talking to his leader so that he does give a direct answer when he is asked a question in the House.
In terms of corporations let me say that government is not a corporation. Some members of the Reform Party have to learn that you cannot try to compare a corporation with government. In government we are dealing with people. We are not dealing with the bottom line.
It used to be said that what is good for GM is good for this country. We have learned that sometimes what is good for corporations is not good for the general population. It is not good for Canadians. We are ensuring that we have a vision for the long term for our future generations, for our children, our grandchildren and their grandchildren. We do not look at just the bottom line. We look at our future to make sure that we have a quality of life we can be proud of and we can tell our future generations that we worked toward that. We cannot compare a corporation and government.
We are concerned with the debt. The first thing we said as a government was that we were going to deal with the deficit. We cannot deal with the debt unless we deal with the deficit. We have put forward a constructive program to deal with the deficit. The international community knows that when we say we are going to deal with it we are dealing with it.
Once we have dealt with the deficit the next step obviously is to deal with the debt. We will be dealing with it but we have to do it in a balanced, rational and a measured approach so that we ensure we are sensitive to the human dimension of cutting deficits and cutting budgets. The way we are doing it will be seen in history as the right way.