Madam Speaker, I listened with some interest to the member for Macleod speak about a slanging match. What we heard in his speech was precisely that. He talked about stupidity, about things mishandled and about all the kinds of terms that one would expect better from the very people who said that they would bring a fresh start to parliament and a new way of doing business.
Despite the member's protestations to the contrary, he and his party are the very ones who would bring Canada to a two-tier American style health care system. Canadians reject this. They reject it out of hand and they reject it for all the right reasons. He can deny and deny this but the reality is that those Reformers opposite, those holier-than-thou's, are always on the bandwagon of wanting to bring in two-tier American style politics. Even when it comes to the 17% flat tax, their right wing soulmates, the Republicans in the United States, the evangelist rednecks, have rejected this kind of nonsense. Yet, there they are clinging to it like they so desperately want to do.
I say that Canadians see through that nonsense. They see through the Reform's flat tax nonsense. They see through its ridiculous two-tier American style nonsense. Those people who claim they want to bring a fresh start to parliament are the very ones who would bring it down. We on the government side will not have any part of it.
The hon. member is a physician. I was a medical orderly and put myself through university by proudly working as a medical orderly.
The Canadian Medical Association—and I read this exactly two days ago—said that we should put aside our partisan politics, put aside the petty kind of nonsense that the hon. member opposite was slinging around and that we should work together on something as fundamental and as important for all Canadians as our health care system.
My question is simple. Why does the member not come clean right here and now and say that he and his party will put aside the petty politics, put aside all that kind of nonsense and work together for the appropriate long term solutions that are necessary in order to fix the system? This is an underlying value of Canadians and this is something that Canadians want to see happen. Why will he not do that?