Mr. Speaker, at the signing of the manpower agreement with Quebec, the Prime Minister justified his enthusiasm by saying that through this agreement he would be avoiding interfering in an area considered an extension of education, an area of provincial jurisdiction.
The ink was barely dry on this agreement before the government rushed headlong into this very area of provincial jurisdiction with the millennium scholarships.
Even Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the spiritual father of the current Prime Minister, said “If a government has so much revenue that it starts looking after that part of the common good not under its jurisdiction, we must assume that government has taken more than its share of taxes”.
The Prime Minister's only ally in this area is Jean Charest, who has no respect either for Quebec's jurisdictions or for the legitimate aspirations of the people of Quebec, whom he claims to represent.