Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct something the member said, that the Reform Party quashed the Charlottetown accord. It was not the Reform Party. We were merely the vessel for people who had concerns across this land with regard to Charlottetown and the provinces.
There were people across this land who got out to the polls in that October. I remember it well. I remember there were people in provinces right across this land, including Quebec, who voted against Charlottetown. It was the people of Canada, the people of the respective provinces of Canada, who got out to the polls in October 1992 and rejected Charlottetown because they rejected the process. That was the problem.
The Reform Party served as a vessel for those people who saw problems with the quotas inherent in Charlottetown and who saw problems with the special deals that were part and parcel of Charlottetown. It was the people of this country from coast to coast to coast who rejected Charlottetown, not just the Reform Party.
Thank goodness the Reform Party was there to serve as a conduit for all those who saw the problems, the fallacies and the inherent contradictions in Charlottetown. If the Reform Party had not been there I do not think we would have had a public referendum. I think Brian Mulroney would have gone ahead and simply imposed that law without having consent.
One of the reasons I stand in my place today is as a youngster of 10 years old in grade five I remember well the patriation of the constitution in 1982. My father and I and many others had problems with the idea that the charter of rights and freedoms was based on collective group rights rather than the rights of the individual. As a result of that I understood at that tender age that it was important to be active in politics because my father and many others like him, the people of this country, never had a chance to vote on the patriation of the constitution and the structuring of the charter of rights and freedoms.
In 1992, 10 years later, we did have a vote and I am going to argue that were it not for the Reform Party the people of this country would never have been able to cast a ballot and make their own decisions for their own constitution.