Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the comments of the hon. member and quite frankly, most of his comments were not directly related to the transportation bill, but I am sure were welcomed just the same by members who are retiring from the House of Commons.
With respect to this particular transportation bill, the hon. member talked about the highway system. I for one would liked to have seen something more done for the national transportation system in this country and I think the hon. member would agree with me.
If we look at the Trans-Canada Highway and the great infrastructure programs of the past, have we seen that in this Parliament or indeed the last several Parliaments? I suggest to the hon. member that in fact it did not happen and much more could be done. One of the things I am very pleased about is the Conservative Party platform and its support of transportation infrastructure.
The hon. member and others could have mentioned the bridges and border crossings. That too has the important transportation component. Those of us in the Conservative Party believe it is absolutely essential that the bridges in this country and the border crossings work because people make investment decisions in this country based on whether they think those border crossings and bridges are going to be available for them. When money gets put into infrastructure, I support and applaud it, but I have said over and over again throughout this Parliament that not enough has been done in those particular areas.
The hon. member mentioned the railways. Which party's vision was it that built the railways to begin with? It was Sir John A. Macdonald and the Conservative Party. People can check out who was opposing that great father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald. The descendants of those individuals are right across the aisle.
When we look for vision in this country, I invite everyone to look to the pages of Canadian history to see the great work that has been done beginning in 1867 by Sir John A. Macdonald. When the hon. member talks about railways, he has to talk about the Conservative Party and everything it has done.
The Conservative Party has a long history of supporting everything that is good and right to build this country of Canada. The Conservative Party helped begin Canada and we will take it forward in the 21st century.