Mr. Speaker, I would like to say first of all that I find the hon. member's comments rather interesting, since he says, on the one hand, that the government has not fulfilled enough of the red book promises, although indeed we have.
On the other hand, he accuses the government of having done precisely what it said in the red book with respect to the GST. I have just read that into Hansard already. We also tabled a copy of it a while ago. Are we to conclude from this that the hon. member wants us to adhere to the red book when it suits him, and not to do so when it does not suit him?
Second, I find the comment on the former member for Hamilton East-and the future member, I hope-rather interesting. The hon. members opposite are the ones who forced her resignation. And resign she did. From that very moment on, the job of finding her replacement does not belong to the hon. members across the floor, but strictly to the voters in her riding.
As for those who question Ms. Copp's right to run again, I would say they need to have more respect for democracy. It is the people who choose. I am willing to bet that I know already what the people in her riding have in their minds, but they will be the ones to have the final say and they will decide. When their decision is made, the hon. members over there will have to pipe down and respect the people's choice, as they ought to have respected the choice of the people of Quebec in two referendums when they said no to the sovereignty the people across the way were proposing.