Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent remarks. He certainly gave the real reasons for being in the situation we are today in terms of the health care service in Canada.
A good number of members and I are from a generation in Canada that has never had to fight for the benefits in our health care system. We have never had to truly experience the horrendous situation that went on prior to medicare.
I will mention an incident that I heard about from the Canadian Alliance member for Selkirk—Interlake. I happened to meet a constituent in his riding last week. He recognized that his own member of parliament was not on the right side of the issue, so he mentioned to me that he recalls the years when his brother on the farm had an appendicitis attack. They called a doctor who came out to the farm. Before seeing his ailing brother in the house, the doctor went out to barn to check out the cow he was to receive by way of payment. That was the state of health care in Canada. That was our health care system prior to medicare.
I find it absolutely unconscionable that the government would not put enough funding into our health care system nationwide to ensure that we have those services for all Canadians. Has my colleague heard of any of such instances?