Madam Speaker, I did not think I was going to have an opportunity to speak this afternoon but it has availed itself. I am pleased to make a couple of observations during the budget debate.
As the member for Charleswood St. James—Assiniboia, which is a west end riding of the city of Winnipeg, I was naturally interested in how my constituents would react to the February 16, 1999 budget.
I am happy to say that the budget is going over extremely well, in fact, so well that very often it is difficult to find reaction out there. When voters, constituents, are generally happy with an initiative by government, they do not say a lot. It is when government is seen to be doing something negative, something that is a mistake that we hear it from voters. I have not been getting an earful from constituents in the past week or so; in fact it has been quite the opposite.
What are they saying? First of all, they are very happy with our health care initiative. Most Canadians, and I think I can speak for most of my constituents—