Mr. Speaker, I spoke his name and am sorry for that.
In tabling his 2007 budget, the Minister of Finance said, “The long, tiring, unproductive era of bickering between the provincial and federal governments is over”.
Well that was then and after that budget it seems that the Prime Minister launched into the longest, most tiring and most unproductive era of bickering that we have seen in the history of federal-provincial relations in this country. Not only did he break his promise on the Atlantic accord, not only did he suddenly rewrite the equalization formula, thereby affecting negatively a number of provinces, certainly including Quebec, but he also broke his promise to Saskatchewan. The number of provinces subject to broken promises from the government since that famous statement is I am sure greater than the number of provinces which have not been subject to broken promises by the government. The question of equalization is one of a long list of broken promises by the government in the area of federal-provincial relations.
I conclude by saying that a Liberal government under the current Leader of the Opposition would attach enormous importance to federal-provincial relations in which promises are kept, in which cooperation and fairness are the order of the day, and in which all relations are conducted with a shared respect that is essential if we are to run a successful federation. At no time is that shared respect in running a successful federation more important than at the time of economic crisis in which we find ourselves today.