Mr. Speaker, I would also like to welcome the member and wish him a speedy recovery.
However, I have to say that I am very disappointed with his diatribe. Each time we put sensible projects forward, we are told we want to destroy Canada. They do not need us to do that. They are destroying the country themselves by being as narrow-minded as they are, and by not even accepting the idea of a federal-provincial meeting. Really! A federalist is opposed to a meeting between his prime minister and the provincial premiers to talk about the efficient operation of the federation. This is really unbelievable.
They talk about the elimination of the deficit as if it were a miracle. Well if all miracles came about that way, we would never have seen one on the face of this earth. It is easy to have somebody else do the dirty work and then say it is a miracle. He did not see how the budget was balanced, that is for sure because it was done somewhere else, not here. It is the unemployed who did it, as well as the provinces. But I do agree, it is a miracle.
Could we strike some sort of a balance somewhere? It is not only the public finances that need to be balanced. Could he show a little more balance and admit that it would be a good idea, given anticipated surpluses of between $70 billion and $90 billion in the next four years, to talk about reapportioning the tax base?