Mr. Speaker, I must begin by congratulating my neighbour, the hon. member for Papineau-Saint-Michel on his election. If he has been elected, it must mean the campaigning is over now, something I think he has forgotten.
During that entire campaign, the minister who was then a candidate refused to take part in an open debate. Now he is in the House, and here there has to be debate. He cannot make just any old statement without some reaction. Those are the rules here. When a person claims to be an expert in international affairs, he has to be able to prove it. I want to give him the opportunity to do so.
The minister is dazzled by Canada's performance, with an unemployment rate that has gone from 11.2 per cent to 9.6 per cent since 1993. Could he explain to us how our American neighbours, with whom we do 80 per cent or more of our trade, have managed during that same time to have an unemployment rate of 5.5, 5.6 per cent? If this is lotus land, it must be an absolute paradise on the other side of the border.
There are other things that more important, or equally important. We are told that people found this to be a wonderful budget. Does that go for the tens of thousands of people who moved from unemployment insurance to welfare while the federal government was cutting benefits and increasing contributions to such an extent that it created a $5 billion surplus in the unemployment insurance fund, shifting tens of thousands of people onto welfare rolls and then washing its hands of its responsibilities to the provinces? The federal government has traditionally paid 50 per cent of welfare costs. That is no longer the way things are, however. The federal government abandons the unemployed to the provinces, but no longer assumes part of the costs.
As for political matters, I am obliged, unfortunately, to recognize that the member for Papineau-Saint-Michel truly represents Liberal Party tradition in this House. Perhaps his speech was prepared before last weekend's meeting of the Liberal Party of Canada in Quebec, because they just buried the constitutional debate by a sort of unanimous motion, which was also approved unanimously by all the federalist allies of the Liberal Party of Canada.
So we are in a position where a little knot of Quebec Liberal members-thanks to the Bloc now, we can show that it is a little knot of federal Liberal members-alone is right. This reminds us of something. They alone are right. They are open minded. They represent Quebec's identity.
Well, I think the minister is going to have to take reality into account. The reality is that nearly 50 per cent of Quebecers voted for sovereignty. This is major progress. The minister adds "sovereignty-partnership". Of course, of course, we are modern. We are modern my friend, and we know it.
The minister should remember that it is thanks to Quebec that Canada adopted free trade. More than anywhere else in Canada, we are open to things modern and to international trade. It is very clear. It is also clear that we are open to partnership.
I welcome him. It is a welcome that promises vigorous debates, because it is clear that, on this side of the House, we very definitely do not share the vision of the member for Papineau-Saint-Michel.