Mr. Chair, I want to ask the hon. member how big he wants big government to be. I think that is pretty well what it gets down to here.
For instance, some people should simply not gamble. If there is a casino across the river, the doors should be locked to them because they cannot handle gambling. Of course, not in your riding, Mr. Chair. That was a very poor choice on my part. Some people cannot handle drinking. We do not have government programs that take the bottle of wine away from the individual. We certainly have government programs and Criminal Code sanctions with respect to behaviour that endangers the lives of others, rightly and properly so, but we do not actually conduct Alcoholics Anonymous programs. That is largely a voluntary sector. Similarly, some people should simply take the scissors to their credit cards because they cannot handle credit.
The hon. member comes from kind of the same background that I do. My father told me that he owed money to no one at any time or at any place. He paid cash for whatever product or service he purchased. Things have changed. I agree with the hon. member that there is some failure here in education in terms of how people handle it, but I do not know if the Government of Canada should be stepping in and replacing in loco parentis .
My general question, which is almost a point of philosophy, is how big does he want government to be? If we step in here, the member can be sure that there will be bureaucracies and more bureaucracies, and we will have full employment once again.