Mr. Speaker, it is rather puzzling to see no one from the official opposition getting involved in this debate except for that last very short question, which was really a question on a different topic. I wonder if this has something to do with the big dinner coming up in Toronto where the Canadian Alliance is selling tables for $25,000 to very wealthy people. This shows that it is a party that has moved a long way from ordinary citizens and a long way from the grassroots. I wonder if this has had some impact on members of parliament as to whether or not they were willing to get up and debate the issues respecting banks because some of the people buying these tables will surely be bankers. They will not be ordinary people living on the east side of Calgary or at the north end of Regina. It will be wealthy people on Bay Street and a lot of banking people.
I also noticed that the profits of some of our big banks have been escalating in the last few years. If we go back to 1992, for example, the profit of the big six banks was $1.8 billion, in 1994 it was $4.3 billion, in 1997 it was $7.6 billion and in 1999 it was $9.2 billion. With that kind of money I am sure some of these people will be buying tables at $25,000 a pop.
Then we have questions about big tax cuts for wealthy people and millionaires. Today somebody in the House said that the 17% flat tax promised by the Alliance Party would give someone making a million dollars a year a tax cut of $130,000 a year.
This is quite a metamorphosis for a party that started off as a grassroots party. It is now a party of Bay Street, a party of big business and a party of the wealthy and the privileged. I wonder if that is why its members are not participating in this debate.