Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank my colleague from the Progressive Conservative Party for supporting us in the debate on this legislation.
I would like his opinion on this: When the government speaks of self-determination, what does that mean for him? Does it mean the same thing for him as for the Liberal Party?
The Liberal Party says “Quebec has full entitlement to self-determination”, except that the Canadian government wants to tell Quebec how self-determination is to be achieved.
Even before the process is under way, the Canadian government, through the Liberal Party, will tell Quebecers how they must move toward self-determination to be recognized by the Canadian government. We know very well that, no matter how clear the question, the Liberal government will never recognize it.
In the 1993 election campaign the Liberals promised the taxpayers “If we are elected, we will scrap the GST, we will put an end to the GST, we will tear up NAFTA.” Could something be clearer than that? People believed them and elected them, but they never kept their promises.
Can we believe them when they say “If the question is clear, we will be ready to negotiate”? In their minds, clarity has nothing to do with the facts. They will go on doing as they please.
Does my colleague agree with me? I would like his comments on this.