Madam Speaker, I have to rise and rebut some of the things my friend across the way has said.
First, I would point out that in Chile at least people have a choice. When they had a choice 90% chose the privatized plan. They are enlightened enough in Chile, because they are a democracy, to offer people a choice. When they had a choice 90% got out of the corrupt public system and went into a private system because it provides better returns.
We argue that people should have a choice. We believe that people ultimately know a lot better than a big bureaucratic government how to invest their own money. We believe in choice.
I also point out that in Chile when people did start to invest in this plan, this private plan, it did wonderful things for their economy. In the years after they started to do that their economy grew at something like an annual rate of 7% a year. There was this huge flow of new capital going into the market that allowed their economy expand to the point where they had too much money in the economy and had to open up their pension fund to investors from around the world. Would that not be a nice problem to have?
I point out to my hon. friend, who was misleading people by suggesting that other G-7 countries would not look at this plan, that the U.S. is seriously looking at this type of plan. I point out that the U.K. has already gone to that plan. In fact, it is going to go further in that direction according to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Let us not scare people. Let us not allow the member across the way to scare people. I do not think that will go over very well with the people in his riding. In fact, after the pitiful speech he just gave we will see the Reform members in that riding increase. That is why all those young people, as revealed in a poll yesterday, are coming over to the Reform Party. They do not have any faith in a government that has run up a debt of $600 billion, not only in public debt, but $600 billion liability in the Canada pension plan.
I ask my friend in a rhetorical way what has that done for young people? What has that done for people who are just starting out? This plan really has not worked all that well, I would argue.
What we have seen in the last 30 years are successive Liberal and Tory governments coming in, deceiving people, telling them that there is not a problem, that everybody is going to be better off.
What has happened? Of course, we have seen premiums not creep up—