Mr. Speaker, I want to support my colleague in some of his opening remarks with regard to the Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in particular, and the reference of a have not area and have not province. There is nothing that infuriates me more than that reference. Further to that, I opened up the Toronto Star, of October 27 and saw the headline “Premiers reach deal on handouts”. It is an insult. They do not get it; they do not understand.
The coal miners of Cape Breton who mine the coal, who powered the navies through the first world war and the second world war, the miners who went underground and risked their lives to power the industry in Ontario to generate the economy in Ontario, they did not consider that a handout.
When the fish from Newfoundland and off the coast of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia fed the farmers in the dust bowl in Alberta, that was not a handout. That was Canadians within the federation helping Canadians. That is what we are talking about here.
My concern with this opposition motion is that it comes from the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Calgary Southwest, who does not understand Atlantic Canadians and does not understand Atlantic Canada.
Anyone who was here in the mid-nineties understands fully that it was Atlantic Canada that suffered most through the cuts in the mid-nineties. He said the cuts were not deep enough. He said they did not go far enough and equalization would have been the casualty of any further cuts.
Does the member not think it is somewhat disingenuous for the motion to be put forward by the member for Calgary Southwest?