Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to enter the debate on Bill C-55.
I will respond to some of the comments from the other side of the House. We heard a comment about dictatorship. This bill is about safeguarding Canadian magazines and it is about safeguarding our culture. I am amazed at how the official opposition, standing alone, is once again trying to cave in to the Americans.
In a National Post article the House leader for the Reform Party talked about rolling over. It seems to me that any rolling over is being done by the Reform Party. As soon as the Americans threaten something, the Reform Party wants to say “We surrender. Canadian culture is not important and the Canadian magazine industry is not important”.
If Reform members are the Gingriches or the Livingstons of the north, and they look to Ross Perot as an inspiration, then I can understand why some of their reasoning comes forward in the way they expound it.
In terms of the great united alternative conference, the Reform Party declared no confidence in itself. No confidence. The opposition party declared no confidence in itself. And it is finding out that the Conservative Party does not want to join in its effort to unite the right, to unite the party that wants to roll over.