Mr. Speaker, it is easy to see what would motivate people to put forward a bill like Bill S-14 to honour two great leaders of our country. I understand what motivated them. I understand why they are doing it, but I do not agree that it is good idea for the same reasons expressed by my colleague from Laval Centre who really begged the question, where does it end?
If we do allocate a memorial day for those two prime ministers, what prime minister would not want a day dedicated to him or her? It would open a can of worms; it would open the door to an area where we do not want to go.
I understand why Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were singled out. We should take special measures to honour and respect the enormous contributions that these two leaders have made to our country. There is an irony here as well. As we see the Liberal government honour Sir A. Macdonald for the great things that he did in cobbling together a federation, a very bold move, we see this particular Liberal government taking deliberate steps to dismantle the whole idea of a strong central government.
The very vision of Sir John A. Macdonald which we seek to recognize, the Liberals are taking active steps to dismantle, that very same strong central confederation. It is worth noting what an achievement it was to pull together a confederation and to make the conscious choice to form a federation rather than a single state.
Federations are the hardest form of government in the world to keep together. Of all the world's countries, I believe less than 20 are federations for that very reason. It is very difficult to pacify all the competing interests and the regionalism that goes together. Of those 20 federations in the world, India is the most populous. The United States is probably the most powerful and wealthiest. Even the United States only lasted 75 years before bursting into a bloody civil war.
Of those 20 federal states in the world, three in recent times have either disappeared or are at risk. I refer to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and Canada which is just hanging on by a thread. It is a very tenuous form of government. It is very difficult to keep a federation together. Sir John A. Macdonald to his credit pulled it together. It is a bit ironic to see the government, or individual members of the Liberal government, promoting a day to honour the founder of confederation when they themselves are actively taking steps to weaken the whole concept of a strong central state through the devolution of power to the provinces and a diminishing role for the federal government.
We should recognize Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Again, I do not believe in a memorial day but we should recognize the enormous contribution that he made to basic democracy. He is the man who gave us the secret ballot vote. That is significant. Something we take for granted as always being there was not always there until someone like Sir Wilfrid Laurier came along and said that in the interests of fairness, in the interests of true democracy, this is the way we are going to do things.
I refer to the public schools act. With true vision Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his government decided that school should be free of charge until grade 12, and that financial status should not be a barrier because that is what people need to take part in the workforce today.
Again, it is ironic to see the government seeking to honour the founder of the public school system with a memorial day when it itself is taking active steps to preclude the participation in post-secondary education. If anything, if the government wanted to dedicate a couple of hours of debate in the House of Commons, we should be debating the concept of extending the public schools act to include the first university degree. There should be free tuition for the first university degree. That would be worthy of debate in the House instead of a token gesture to memorialize Sir Wilfrid Laurier by a memorial day.
Another of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's achievements we should make note of is immigration, building the west. The member who spoke previously mentioned Sir Wilfrid Laurier was in government from 1896 to 1911, 15 years uninterrupted.
During that period of time Manitoba grew about by 300%. In my home province of Manitoba there were waves of immigration. It took real foresight and real vision to open our borders and invite the world to come and help us build a great nation. That took real, inspired vision. I recognize that and I have a great deal of respect for it.
As I am outlining these things, more come to mind. There is another irony associated with this in that one of the greatest achievements of Sir John A. Macdonald was building the national railway. The single greatest achievement of that century, perhaps, in terms of building this nation was our national railway, the great dream. Here we have members of the Liberal government opposite proposing to honour Sir John A. Macdonald, the architect of that dream, when they themselves are again taking active steps to dismantle the national dream of a continuous rail line from east to west. For years we have been criticizing the dismantling of our rail system. For all the environmental reasons and economic reasons we should be encouraging rail transportation in this country, accentuating it and adding to it, not tearing up the tracks.
We cannot help but comment on the irony associated with that. The Liberals seek to honour the memory of Sir John A. Macdonald with a memorial day when the very things that Sir John A. Macdonald dedicated his life to building in this country they themselves are dismantling piece by piece.
I cannot support the bill. I know it is a private member's bill and so my party members will be voting their own conscience. I am not speaking for my caucus, but I myself support the remarks from the member for Laval Centre, that we do not think it is appropriate to start dedicating memorial days to the memory of prime ministers, no matter how great their contribution to building this country. I will not be supporting Bill S-14.