Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the constituents in my riding of Winnipeg Centre, I am pleased to enter the debate on budget 2009 even at this late hour, perhaps even at the last speaking opportunity as we go into the final stage of this debate which will be the vote. I fully expect this budget to pass, knowing what we know about the intentions of the official opposition, although I do not believe the Liberals deserve that title any longer. My colleague, the member for Timmins—James Bay suggested that they folded like cheap suits at the first little bit of pressure. Not once, not twice, but 45 times in a row the Liberals have supported the Conservative government.
Canadians across the country were interested when there was talk of a coalition being formed in Parliament for the first time in Canadian history. They are still amused if not interested in the fact that a new coalition has formed, and that is between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.
The new leader of the Liberal Party has proven himself to be nothing more than the Prime Minister's poodle, and I do not say that with any disrespect to poodles. The Liberal leader is the kind of man who surrenders uncategorically and then calls a press conference declaring victory. The galling thing is the monumental hypocrisy of the Liberals who stand up and speaker after speaker condemn the budget as being inadequate, as being an affront to women's rights. I cannot even remember all the eloquent speeches made by Liberals condemning this budget, yet in 15 or 20 minutes I am pretty sure we will see most Liberals stand up and vote for this budget.
What did they bargain for? What was the hard bargaining that the leader of the Liberal Party undertook in exchange for his support? I remember when the NDP had some bargaining leverage in a previous minority Parliament. We traded our support for a Liberal budget for $4.8 billion worth of spending that we thought was important. What did the leader of the Liberal Party trade? Reports and putting the Conservatives on probation. My colleagues in the Conservative Party are trembling at that prospect. I have actually heard them chuckling to themselves about the deal they got. Talk about Jack and the beanstalk and trading in the family cow for three beans, well that is the proportion of the trade that we saw. Criminals all across the country are hoping for a parole officer like the leader of the Liberal opposition.
The current leader of the Liberals is doing a remarkable job of making the former leader of the Liberal Party look like a pretty good leader. We did not know that was possible.
Here is his bargaining stance. I can show the bargaining stance of the leader of the Liberal Party when he was negotiating with the Conservatives. It was like this: “Please, please leave us with some dignity, please. Don't make me go to the people and get the crap kicked out of us, please”. That was the bargaining stance of the leader of the official opposition.