Mr. Speaker, I want to make a comment and preface that with a short question for the House leader of the Conservative Party.
What I resent about this debate is the Reform Party playing politics with a very important national symbol of this country. I think that can be very dangerous in terms of the flag waving and the political games it is playing. Let us really call it what it is. It is the Reform Party wanting to go around the country after this is over and say “We stood up to those terrible separatists. We stood up for the flag and for Canada but those other parties did not”. That is exactly what it wants to do.
The Reform members are smirking here this morning because they are going to have the four other parties voting against this motion. This is the most pathetic partisan politics I have ever seen. It is an abuse of the flag and of our national symbols. I really resent that. I have never seen that happen in all my years in this House.
What about games? Who was it in this House who threw the flag on the floor of the House of Commons? Was it a separatist? No. It was the member for Medicine Hat, the Reform Party finance critic, who threw the flag on the floor of the House of Commons. If that is not playing politics with the flag then what the devil is it?
Who was it that took an old convertible and painted it the colours of the Canadian Flag? Was it a member of the Conservative Party, the NDP or the Liberal Party? Who was it? The Reform Party. It is the Reform Party that is using the flag as a gimmick, as a narrow partisan instrument for its narrow partisan political beliefs.
Reformers are trying to divide Canadians, be divisive, pit Canadian against Canadian. I resent that as someone who has been in this House for a number of years. I have never seen this kind of gamemanship in the history of the House of Commons. That comes from a political party that said it wanted to do politics differently, bring decorum to the House of Commons. We are seeing the true Reform Party in this House of Commons here today. When I am out in my riding, as I was last weekend, people are saying to me why do we not talk about the real issues, the real issues confronting all Canadian people.
This Parliament costs over $1 million a day in terms of sitting days to run. The budget of the House of Commons is over $200 million a year. We sit for approximately 140 or 150 days per year, over $1 million a day. The Reform Party is wasting that kind of money trying to divide Canadians by being partisan with the flag of Canada. I resent that and I want to have a comment from the House leader of the Conservative Party whether he agrees with me that it is narrow partisan politics on the flag and a waste of money. We should be dealing with real issues of this country.