Mr. Speaker, yes, Canadians should ask themselves why the government did not want debate in the House for a good month this fall. Nobody else gets to take an extra month off. The government seemed to be out there trying to help the Conservative Party in Ontario. Perhaps if it had stayed out two months earlier, it might have got him a little further than he got. However, it does raise the question of why we are here.
We are here to raise issues that are of substance to this nation. Every time we stand to speak in the House, we see this clown act from the Conservatives, where they run around screaming that we are not focused on being tough on crime.
This is the government that embarrassed us nationally at the Commonwealth talks. This is the government that comes from a party that says that Kyoto is some kind of socialist plot, that there is no such thing as global warming and that if we did anything about it, we would have to shut down all our planes, trains and automobiles and live like they did the Stone Age. The latest thing they are saying is that they are serious about it, but they are going to ensure it does not happen in their lifetime.
The failure of the government to deal with substantive issues has to be addressed. If one of those issues today is the attempt by the government, through surreptitious means and through trade deals, to strip our cultural infrastructure, then that is what we will debate. Tomorrow, I hope we have another substantive issue so we can continue to keep the government off its lowbrow agenda.