Mr. Speaker, the member for Oak Ridges talked about accountability and responsibility. He said that the Liberal government should be responsible and accountable. All Canadians want from their governments is for them to be accountable and responsible to the people.
The member for Oak Ridges said: “We have to have to have confidence in the system”. We have seen a very severe attack on the integrity of the government over the last year. How can Canadians have confidence in the system, in the government, when it tries to spend $20 million a year to subsidize millionaire hockey players?
How can we have confidence in the government when it refuses to assist western grain farmers who are suffering the worst farm income crisis since the 1930s?
How can we have confidence in a government which defends the oil companies, allowing them to gouge consumers at the gasoline pumps at the highest rates in the world?
How can we have confidence in the government when medicare is in crisis and all it says is that it will look at it over the next five years?
We have a real crisis in confidence with respect to the government.
I ask the member: How can you persuade Canadians to trust your government to do the right thing in any program you administer when every single time you lay your hands on the treasury the money is misspent?