Mr. Speaker, I rise to respond to recent anti-Reform rants from both the Conservative and Liberal leaders.
Has the Tory member forgotten that the late Tory MP Dan McKenzie returned from a trip to South Africa preaching the merits of Apartheid and spouted off that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites in school? Surely that is not the Tory position.
Has he forgotten that in 1991 Tory MP Jack Shields shouted "shut up, sambo" to NDP MP Howard McCurdy, the only black in the House at the time? Is that Tory policy? Mr. Shields was not even stripped of his post. Certainly the silence was deafening from the Tory leader. And what of Bill Kempling and Don Blenkarn?
Have the Liberals forgotten their own Prime Minister who said he appreciated the black members of his caucus because they smile a lot? Is that blatant racial stereotyping Liberal Party policy? Where were the cries of outrage when that was uttered? Imagine if a Reformer had said that.
Every political party has times when its membership makes ill considered remarks. The test of a party's true character lies-