Madam Speaker, without wanting to be too polemical about this, it seems that the hon. member once again is very much at odds with what his leader said. He is asking how else we can make the federal government live up to its responsibilities unless we convert all the cash grants to tax points. Yet the Leader of the Opposition said that as far as he was concerned the solution was to legislate such that the federal government could not reduce its cash transfer to the provinces.
That is one solution. Why did he not offer it? Why is he fixated on converting cash grants to tax points when his own leader is not?
With respect to the other question about why I should trust or have great confidence in future federal governments, the point is well taken. I do not have a lot of confidence in the present government. This and previous federal governments have made a whole lot of unilateral cutbacks in the federal commitment to medicare and post-secondary education, going back to the budget of Allan MacEachen and to the Conservative budgets. Almost every federal budget, with the exception of recent ones which have put back some of the money, unilaterally took out money from the partnership that was established.
Why does the hon. member trust future provincial governments? I am arguing on the basis of what I think the best system would be. I do not have a lot of confidence in Mike Harris or Ralph Klein. Maybe the hon. member does and that is the difference between us.
I am arguing for what I think the federal government should be. I am arguing for what I think the role of the federal government should be. My job as a politician is to try to make what I think is the best thing happen, not always to make judgments on the basis of how badly the Liberals are living up to what the federal government should do.
If I were to make judgments about what the federal government should do on the basis of how Liberals behave, I would not think that the federal government should have any role at all. However, because I hold up a higher ideal in my mind of what the federal government is than what Liberals are able to live up to, I continue to argue for the kind of Canada that I want.