Mr. Speaker, if we look further at the New Democratic Party, it received 18% of the vote across the country and it is making a deal with a party that received 26% of the vote. If I am adding correctly, that is 113 seats or so and those parties are going to install the prime minister.
However, that is not the bad part about it. That is not the part that bothers me. They can make deals among themselves. I can quote from days where the opposition leader poured cold water on suggestions about a coalition government as he attacked the fourth party leader's plan on the economy. On September 23, 2008, he said, “[The leader of the fourth party] does not understand the economy. I cannot think that Canadians will give their support to a man who will kill jobs everywhere in the country in raising the corporate tax. There are four additional quotes from October where the opposition leader said he would not form a coalition with the New Democratic Party.
What really irks me and the hundreds of people who have called or emailed me is that these two parties have made a deal with a party in the House that wants to break up Canada. They have made a deal so they can cross the aisle and put a prime ministerial crown on someone who is leaving. We all realize nobody in Canada wanted him or they would have voted for him four weeks ago, but that is not the case.
They have made a deal with a separatist party, the Bloc Québécois. How is that good for Canada? How do I explain to my daughters that the political scheme they have come up with is good for Canada? There is no explanation for it. Actually, there is one explanation. It is political power. The NDP is in fourth place and always will be in fourth place as long as the Bloc is here. Maybe it will move up to third if we can get rid of the Bloc. It supported the Bloc today. If we could get rid of the Bloc and have the NDP move up to third place, then it will never form government in this country, thank goodness.
I understand from what I am hearing that there will be six cabinet positions in this new coalition. The only way it can have any influence is to make a deal with separatists, people who want to break up Canada, who do not really want to be here but are happy to have the income and take our money. I can say from sitting on committee that when there is something it wants, it does not mind taxpayers in the rest of the country paying for it, absolutely not. Only when it is affected will it give support.
Here is the deal. I am hearing the deal is this. The other minority parties, the Liberal Party and NDP, will stick together for about two and a half years. They will throw each other out after two and a half years. The Bloc's deal, the tail that is wagging the dog, is 18 months. They are accepting little deals with each other. Is that good for Canada? Is that the direction this country needs? Nobody around here is denying that we are in tough economic times, but does anyone think that the public in this country wants the politicians to be making little deals?
Let us be honest. The finance department asked the opposition members for suggestions on this update. We did receive suggestions. We received suggestions from the Bloc but not from the NDP and not from the Liberals because we know from information that is now available that they had been working on this coalition scheme long before, as soon as the Liberals knew they had lost.
The leader of the fourth party put himself up as a potential prime minister in the last election. He declared it everywhere he went, “Vote for me. I will be your next prime minister”. He came fourth. The public in this country does not want him as the leader. The public does not want NDP members in cabinet. If the Liberals and the NDP had the audacity to do this, they should take it to the people. Let us ask Canadians how they feel about that. No, no, they say, they are going to ask the Governor General to form a government. We will see how long it lasts. I do not think it will last more than a few weeks.
The NDP made a deal with a party that has a lame-duck leader. He admitted today that he is leaving. He knows he is leaving. I believe he would be the second leader of the Liberal Party never to have become prime minister. Now he is going to correct that history book by being prime minister for, in his view, a few months, until their leader is picked.
The NDP made a deal with a party that does not have a leader. It is unbelievable. It is undemocratic. It treats the people who voted in the last election with contempt. I do not believe that it will last. I do not think it is good for this country.
The previous speaker, who was not in the House before, had a question about plans. That is absolutely right. What did he think we were doing here? We were expecting plans from the automotive sector and from other sectors. The Liberals got up and made a big speech to the effect that they were going to have plans, that they were going to talk to those industries and see what their plans were and make sure they were viable.
Mr. Speaker, I want you and everyone in this House to check the record on the economic update from last year and the previous year. We had complaints from the opposite side that it was too much like a budget, that we were doing too much in those economic updates.
This update was much narrower. We were waiting for ideas and plans from the industries that were looking for a stimulus package. We were going to consult with the provinces and continue consulting with the G20 people we have been dealing with.
The U.S. plan does not even come into effect until after president-elect Obama assumes office on January 20, 2009. They had an $80 billion plan. What has it done for them? Nothing.
We need plans. That is what the government will do, and that is what the government will continue to do.