Madam Speaker, I say to my hon. colleague that when it comes to the maritime provinces and Newfoundland we have absolutely nothing to worry about in the next election because the people will not vote for the official opposition. The member does not even have to worry about that. The opposition got only 2% of the vote in Newfoundland.
Should there be a recall? Certainly there should be a recall if any one of them joins in the pension plan. We should be watching that on both sides of the House. We can look at the comments they made. On November 2, 1999, they said that 34 Reform MPs, including all second term Reformers from Alberta, fought for, won and exercised the right to opt out of the MPs pension plan. However, reflecting on the difficulty of going without a pension does not mean any of these principled MPs have changed their minds. In any event they could not legally opt back into the plan even if they wanted to at that time.
They can opt into the plan now. We certainly will be watching to see who opts in to the plan in view of the statements that have been made in the House about everyone else who has been part of the pension plan.
When I ran in 1993 I did not even know there was a pension. I never got a pension after 18 years at the local level. I never knew there was a pension plan up here. I did not run for a pension. I would not have dreamed that there was a pension. My hon. colleague asked me about the candidates who are running to be the leader of the Canadian Alliance. There is one and that is the person who was the leader of the Reform Party who stated just this week, and I believe it is in Quorum , that if he becomes the leader none of them will be able to take the MPs pension because he will not allow it. It will be interesting to see what happens.