One colleagues has just said that they are here to oppose. They are here to say whatever it is that comes to mind whether it makes any sense or not. I suppose that is the basic assumption.
Another notion is that the government is there to protect no matter what. Let us deal with what is being said about some of the things we have done. I do not know if these people have any political affiliation. Let me put on my glasses because I would not want to misquote and thereby cause some real serious disruption on the opposition side.
On the Speech from the Throne Tim Reid, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said:
We applaud the achievement of getting to a balanced budget, but the risk is that we underplay the threat of the massive debt. The government really should be setting targets to reduce the debt to GDP ratio.
William Leggett, president of Queen's University, said the following on the scholarship fund:
It is an important initiative. I hope that this leadership will be followed by the provinces.
We have not heard a whole lot about that. It is a marvellous submission for the next millennium. They should have stood and applauded, not congratulated the government if that made them feel a little queasy. They could have congratulated one another for standing up unanimously in support of a program that will be good for young Canadians today, tomorrow and for a long time.
What were some of the headlines following the Speech from the Throne? “Federal Liberals to create scholarship fund, a good initiative” was one in the Globe and Mail . “A billion dollars for brains” was another in the Ottawa Sun on September 25, 1997.
In the Journal de Montréal of September 25, one could read this: “Chrétien on the front line” and “Ottawa to create large scholarship fund”. There are several such headlines because it is seen as quite a creative initiative.
“A $1 billion scholarship fund to help low income students” was in the Ottawa Citizen . Again it is mentioned. It has been mentioned time and time again, and there has not been one positive comment from members of the opposition. I say shame on the opposition.
That is not all that has been said. I go on to quote Tom Brzustowksi, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council:
We should be doing all that we can to attract the best and the brightest of graduate studies in science and engineering, because the future prosperity and well-being of Canadians will depend to a very large extent on their efforts.