Mr. Speaker, what aboriginal Canadians fear most is the continuation of a Liberal administration which patronizes them but which lacks the courage or the vision to address the real problems.
The scope of the Liberals' incompetence and their complacency in accepting and indeed institutionalizing aboriginal poverty in Canada has been shocking.
After 12 Liberal years, here is what we see. There are more aboriginal child suicides than ever. There are more aboriginal children with fetal alcohol syndrome than ever. There are more teenage pregnancies, more gangs and more community violence than ever. The education gap widens. The community infrastructure gap widens.
The Liberals meanwhile continue to force-feed aboriginal Canadians a diet of broken promises, unfilled dreams and rhetoric, with nothing in the throne speech, nothing in the budget, little action on residential schools and none on the matrimonial rights of aboriginal women.
A Conservative government will change all this and will bring new hope. We will pursue a new Conservative agenda with courage and resolve, striving to improve the living conditions and the future hopes of aboriginal women and children.