The hon. member says those 19 members are responsible for the budgetary process. I agree. He is right. It is the NDP. The leader of the NDP says it is a NDP budget. Of course it is: it is one that is short on specifics and long on spending commitments, lots of them. That is an NDP budget right there.
When I saw the deal the Liberals and the NDP cut, a two page budget of $4.6 billion, it reminded me of the one comment the Prime Minister made in the last election that I agreed with. He said that whenever the NDP looks at a problem, the solution to every problem starts with a dollar sign and ends with a whole lot of zeros. There is no doubt about that.
I say to the Liberal members that the Prime Minister was right. That one time, he was right about the NDP members. Why are those Liberal members worried about the budgetary process? I say to them, do the right thing with the Atlantic accord and split it off. How much do they owe to the NDP? In my opinion, those members owe more to Atlantic Canadians, the people from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Liberals owe more to them than they owe to the people in the NDP.
I say to them that they should support this. If the Liberals do not want to do this, I think there is something that is important before they cave in on this. They have a terrific record about which I would love to go on at length on all the things they have caved in on, but before they cave in on this one and split it off from the budgetary process I think every single Liberal should have the opportunity to make a speech and get on the record why they oppose this so they will have something to talk about to explain why they will change their minds a little later.
At this point I want to give them that opportunity, so I am prepared to move the following motion. I move:
That pursuant to Standing Order 26(1), the House continue to sit beyond the ordinary hour of daily adjournment for the purpose of considering Motion No. 51 in the name of the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl.
Let us go all night long on this.