Mr. Speaker, I would first like to suggest that is one of the best political speeches I have heard in the House of Commons in all my time here.
In response to the charges from the Liberal Party that we are somehow in a cynical way using this issue to take political advantage of the Liberals, I think it has been very clear from the beginning that all the opposition parties gave the health minister and the Prime Minister an opportunity to back down, to back out, to change their position, to change their mind. However, they chose to ignore that. They chose to draw a hard line in the sand and say “No, this is the way it is going to be”.
I would ask the hon. member, is it not playing crass politics to start pointing fingers at the opposition now, saying that we are somehow playing politics with this horrendous situation where people trusted our blood supply and were poisoned as result? Is this not crass politics on the part of the Liberal Party to be pointing fingers at the opposition when in fact it has had every opportunity to back down gracefully and it would not do so? Would the hon. member respond to that?