Mr. Speaker, the seniors spoke quite loudly and clearly in the last election about how they felt the previous Liberal government had responded to their needs. They defeated the Liberals because the Liberal government had not addressed their fundamental issues. In fact, the Liberals made life a lot harder for seniors as a result of cutbacks to health care, education, housing and just about every social policy area that would make a difference to seniors.
I am not for one minute suggesting that the Conservatives are any better. I would say in fact that the Conservatives are beginning to look an awful lot like the Liberals. They ignore the seniors and disregard this important legacy that our elders have left us. I say a pox on both of their houses. They have let down the seniors of this nation and have disregarded their fundamental concerns and needs.
The issue that was most disappointing to the NDP leading up to the last election was the failure of the Liberal government to recognize the importance of standing up for medicare. Seniors remember what life was like before medicare. They said to the Liberals over and over again, “You let us down. We will not stand by while you dismantle health care, while you let it be privatized and move us toward a two tier system. We know how important it is”.