Madam Speaker, I listened with some interest to the member opposite pat herself on the back with respect to what she had done presumably in 1991. I was certainly interested in that.
The one thing we know about the NDP members is that they are not very good with numbers. I think we witnessed that again here today with the member's speech. NDP members have an inability to really come to grips with such a very important issue and the kinds of things that are necessary in terms of our health care.
For members of the NDP the sky is always falling. It is too bad that they get into those flights of rhetoric and try to always undermine the very system that we in Canada take for granted.
I do agree with the hon. member when she talks about the Reform Party and what it stands for. Reform members stand for a two tier Americanized system, and that is something Canadians reject out of hand.
I was somewhat disconcerted when I read in the Hansard of March 2, 2000 that the hon. member for Shefford who is a Progressive Conservative also seemed to indicate that privatization was something that should take place in Canada. I was astounded because I would have thought better of the Progressive Conservatives. This after all is their motion today.
I also noted that the member for Chicoutimi was quoted recently as saying that perhaps the Conservatives and the Reformers should get together in some sort of holy or unholy alliance. I think his words were: “Let's find common ground”. If they are to find common ground on that kind of issue presumably they will on health care as well.
I would caution Progressive Conservatives not to go down that path. They should be careful when it comes to these kinds of things. We saw them flip on the clarity bill. Heaven help us if they flip on something as important as health care.
I listened to the speech of the member opposite. Why would her leader under the platform of the NDP in the last election commit $79 billion to new spending over five years, only 10% of which or $7 billion was committed to health care? It does not add up. NDP members talk about the importance of health care yet their commitment was absolutely outrageous in terms of what they were proposing. It is unbelievable.
Let me conclude by giving the record. What Bob Rae and the NDP and Glen Clark and the NDP in B.C. did was outrageous. My question to the member is simple. Why does she not work with all of us, our provincial and territorial partners and the health minister, to try to find a solution instead of all the nonsense they keep raising and all the rhetoric they keep stirring up, all this sky is falling kind of nonsense? Why will she not commit the NDP to working with us to get a good solution for the all important health care issue in Canada?