Madam Speaker, as you correctly pointed out, even though it is eleven o'clock at night that certainly was not a point of order. The hon. member knew it before he rose in his place.
The second assertion of the hon. member from New Brunswick was that somehow my House leader, the member for Fraser Valley, and the Canadian Alliance had an opportunity to spin their story. Let us look at who is spinning what story.
The hon. member represents a party that had a massive majority government between the years 1984 and 1993. If I am not mistaken, the father of his House leader, the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, was a member of that government for a portion of that time as a cabinet minister. These individuals in the Progressive Conservative caucus are somehow trying to point the finger during this debate. They had a majority government for nine years. At that time they promised the Canadian people a privatized pension plan like those used by other Canadians. They had a massive majority government for nine years and did nothing to change the MP pension plan.
Since we were elected in 1993 we have tried for seven years to bring about changes to this plan, and we are in opposition. We have tried everything we can including opting out of the plan to draw public attention to what we believe is an unfair plan. We have tried to get changes that we all can participate in. We have tried to get a plan that we can all participate in, hold our heads up, look at ourselves in the mirror, and participate in.
The Progressive Conservatives were in government between 1984 and 1993. They had a massive majority, indeed the largest majority in Canadian history. They had 212 of the 285 seats and they never changed the pension plan. They have the audacity to stand and attack others who have tried to change it. They should be ashamed of themselves.