They see Quebec as being on its knees, as not having any major international significance and therefore as being, ultimately, a closed society.
In keeping with what my hon. colleague from Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour said, this provincial reality is not neutral. There is an evolution. This concept of a provincial Quebec is progressive. We see this clearly under the current Quebec government, which is advancing the idea of a council of the federation to help make Quebec a better province.
We saw this again yesterday in connection with the municipalities. The Government of Quebec is celebrating as a victory the fact that it has achieved rapid agreement with the federal government on something that dragged on for three years under the former Quebec government, because the Government of Canada in the past was concerned with respecting the constitution. This means that the green plan for municipalities would have funds go directly to Quebec for distribution by it to the municipalities, as set out in the constitution and intended by the spirit of that constitution.
The good provincialist Quebec Liberals were quick to reach agreement, but that agreement was for the federal government to distribute funding directly to the municipalities, through the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. That was yesterday's decision. We describe the process as evolving from day to day. That was what happened yesterday.
This is a good illustration of how provincial these people are, their provincialist mentality, which is headed 15, 20 or 30 years down the road to folklorization and eventually Louisianization. At that point, we will no longer have any influence.
The issue at stake is a very important one. We must hope that the true thinkers among the Liberals, and among the Conservatives as well, take off their partisan blinkers and take a look at the destiny of the Quebec people, look where we are headed, evaluate the price Quebec has to pay to remain within the Canadian federation, assess the price of non-sovereignty. For example, taking a look at one little historical event—