Madam Speaker, I find our friends in the Reform Party and those across the way, the Liberals, do not have very thick skin. They are rather thin-skinned.
The member said earlier that the morning after Quebec's secession Air Canada could find itself with a majority of shareholders, maybe more than 25%, who would be Quebecers.
This, however, is what the member for Vaudreuil wanted for the Americans a few days ago. He said we should not allow the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec or the Société générale de financement to become majority shareholders in Air Canada; that it would be better to raise it to 50% and sell to the Americans.
For a Quebecer to say that, he must really hate himself.
As for the clear question, I remember these people opposite in 1980—thank God, I was young but I was there—who were saying “A yes means a no and a no means a yes”. They were the ones who did everything they could to make the question unclear and who made all kinds of false promises. We saw the results.
Our Prime Minister, just as a sow bug—you know those small bugs you find in damp places—ran all night through the hotel corridors during the “night of the long knives”, as it is called, to stick his longest knife in Quebec's heart.
It is strange that the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and all members opposite were not offended by that.
In the 1995 referendum Quebecers could just as well have been asked if they liked apple pie. Everybody would have known what the question meant. Then the federal government sent its bigwigs to Quebec to say that a yes meant separation from Canada and a no—same song, same tune—meant a renewal. Everybody knew and understood the stakes.
Do Reformers think that Quebecers are somewhat lost today and that they do not understand the true meaning of the decision they will be called upon to make someday? I hope they will make the right one.
They must come back to earth. I saw how Reformers treated the Nisga'a. I have no illusions about the way they will treat us, whether we vote yes or no. If our fate depended on the Reform Party it would be even worse than what we have seen so far. It would be horrible. They have absolutely no consideration for people in their own province, let alone for Quebecers.
I ask the hon. member to rethink her position, to look at the person in front of her straight in the eye. He can do the dirty work. She should ask him whose interests he is defending when he does that to Quebec. That is the sense of my question.