Mr. Speaker, the infighting is really quite amazing. One can think back to a couple of budgets ago, when the finance minister said that this “long, tiring, unproductive era” of federal-provincial bickering was at an end. The example of this virulent attack on the McGuinty government, plus the examples my hon. friend raised about Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, suggest that the level of federal-provincial bickering or fighting or federal attacks is probably greater than at any time since at least the 1930s.
In answer to his direct question, yes, I have been in my riding for the last couple of weeks, and people are flabbergasted. They do not understand, particularly at a moment when manufacturing jobs are at risk and when people feel insecurity looking forward, why their governments are fighting like this rather than working together to do something positive and helpful for the people of Ontario.
My constituents are totally taken aback. They are totally opposed to this fighting spirit on the part of our finance minister, who does not seem to understand that investors actually listen to him and that this may cause investors not to come to Canada or Ontario.