Mr. Speaker, I sat patiently listening to the debate tonight. I am not a grain farmer at all, but it struck me we have in the House a group of people on that side with 38% of the votes in the 1997 election and 100% of the power to impose their will upon the people. In western Canada they had maybe less than 20% of the vote and they still have 100% of the power to impose their will upon unwilling recipients of their favours, shall we say.
It reminds me of the early 1980s when Francis Fox, another minister who used to sit on that side, tried to impose his will on the people of Canada when people were trying to install satellite dishes to pick up free choice in television signals.
Francis Fox condoned the seizure of those dishes. In the Vancouver area they went around seizing satellite dishes off apartment buildings. In the end that minister lost the battle because although he had 100% of the power initially the group he was fighting was too big. That group wanted more choice than he could prevent. In the end he lost that battle and we got the freedom of satellite dishes.
Indirectly I relate that to what the Liberal government is doing today. It has this compelling urge to impose its will upon people who do not want that will imposed upon them. As I said, I am a person who is not a grain farmer. There are no western grain farmers on that side of the House. I heard a group of western grain farmers on this side of the House saying they want a choice like the people in the 1980s wanted a choice in satellite transmission of their television signals. I do not understand is why that group opposite wants to impose something different upon them.
I have a question for the member who just finished his speech. What does he feel is driving these people on the other side of the House to impose their will upon unwilling grain farmers?