Madam Speaker, I was really rather surprised that the hon. member who just spoke in answer to another question said that Quebec is a “nation”. I wonder if the member could define what he means by nation. There are different ways, I suppose, in which we can define nation, but I thought Quebec was a province of Canada and I thought Canada was a federation of all the provinces working together.
He also made the observation that Quebec takes nothing from the rest of Canada. I would like to ask him, then, about what has happened over the years where that cooperative element has in fact worked, where indeed the tax structure has created situations where there may have been a fiscal imbalance, and I am sure there is, but the fact still remains that Quebec was a beneficiary of certain financial agreements and arrangements that exist within Canada.
Could the member explain a little more clearly exactly what he means by Quebec being a nation?