Mr. Speaker, I apologize. I got so worked up that I just could not help it. However, I do have another whole version of it here. Pap is pretty cheap.
When I listened to the throne speech in the other place, I reflected back on the last number of years here. I go back to the Tories because it is basically the same group, only different faces.
I remember as a kid having my mother read me a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, called The Wreckers where unscrupulous people on a desert island would light fires on the rocks at night to lure ships into thinking it was a harbour. The ships would smash on the rocks, people would loot the ships and the people on the wrecked ships would die.
This reminds of the government. This reminds me of my Liberal friends. I wonder if they really know what they are doing to the people of Canada.
There is a reference in the throne speech to the deficit war being won. I suspect that if we listen carefully we would hear the Liberals cheering, saying “We won the deficit war. Yes, we were successful”.
If we were to acknowledge the heroes of the deficit war over the last number of years it would not be the Minister of Finance and our Liberal colleagues across the way or our previous Conservative friends in the House of Commons. It would be the long line-ups of people waiting to get into hospital. It would be the thousands and thousands of young people with huge debt loads on their shoulders as a result of having to fund so much of their education. It would be the 1.4 million people who do not have a decent job or perhaps do not even have a job at all. It would be the millions who have part-time jobs and are barely scraping through to make ends meet for their families.
We could talk about others like the 10,000 people every month, month after month, who declare personal or business bankruptcy, who are walking away from their businesses and their homes. In many cases they walk away from devastated families as a result of the economic policies of the government.
They are the true heroes of this deficit war. They should be the ones who are first rewarded when there is a dividend. The minute there is a surplus we should go back and start mending the safety net that has been ripped and torn apart by the Liberals and by the Conservatives before them. This should be a top priority if we are a caring and decent country.
I look across at these people. They look like nice people but I do not think they care about people. If they cared about people, would they permit having over a million children—they are laughing, Mr. Speaker. I do not think this is funny. They are laughing at over a million children waking up this morning and living in poverty in the richest country in the world. The Conference of Catholic Bishops calls it a form of child abuse, that this is allowed to happen. The government has to accept responsibility for that.
These people sit quietly in their places and give little speeches in the House of Commons about how nice the country is, how great they are and how hardworking we are all going to be. This country is in a mess for a growing number of people.
I acknowledge that luxury car sales are up. I acknowledge that the Toronto Stock Exchange is at historic levels. I admit that corporate profits have never been higher and the banks are happier than they ever have been in our banking history. At the same time increasing numbers of Canadians are living in poverty, increasing numbers of people are losing their jobs, their businesses and their homes.
What will the government do about this? Let us look in the throne speech. We are positive, happy people trying to find some goodness left in this world. There must be some goodness left in this government. There must be something in here about what it will do about the 1.4 million people who do not have jobs today. Is it mentioned?
I am being asked to talk about something new. The Liberals would love me to shut up about this topic. They would love me to stop talking about the 1.4 million people who are out of jobs? They would love me to stop talking about the people in Atlantic Canada who met our caucus and said they have not worked in four years because of this government's policies on free trade, NAFTA and now the multilateral agreement on investment.
There is a slow erosion in our country of what our parents and grandparents before them struggled to build for generation after generation into one of the best countries in the world. We have people by the hundreds of thousands lining up to come here because of what they built and what the government is tearing down systematically budget after budget after budget.
This has to stop. We cannot sit here passively, talking about minor shifts in trade and changes to trade policy or tinkering and so on with various social programs. At the same time as we sit here today, the Minister of Finance has tabled legislation in the House to radically change the way seniors receive their pensions.
When we cut through all the red tape and all those provisions, what does it say? It says that hundreds of thousands of seniors in the future will receive fewer benefits.
Is that the kind of country we are? Is that what we have come to? Is there anything in this throne speech about a national child care system? I heard minister after minister promise to introduce it. I heard Tory ministers promising to introduce it. Now it has reached a point where they were too embarrassed to mention it in the throne speech because they know nothing will happen in the budget.
Things must change. I am pleased to be here with a group of very progressive New Democrats who on a daily base in the House will remind the government how it has been cruel and continues to be cruel to many Canadians. That has to change and change soon.