Mr. Speaker, I was thinking of what Winston Churchill once said. He was asked about his political opponent Clement Attlee, “Isn't he a modest man?” and he replied, “A modest man, but then he has so much to be modest about”. I am not speaking here of my opponent, although he is modest. However, I think his government, actually, is not modest, although it does have much to be modest about.
In fact, this is a very modest piece of legislation for us. Although it was interesting to hear my colleague actually say that this is really about powerful messaging.
Should we not want more than that in this House? Should we not want some powerful substance, instead?
It really does not do much. It does a little bit and that is good. The protocol makes some small steps in a positive direction. However, what concerns me is that the government is ignoring the real economic problems with the country; particularly, at a time when we see what is happening in Europe. Even China, now, is expecting to have lower growth.
We are looking at very difficult times around the world economically and we see a government that is sleepwalking toward it. We have people with real problems, facing joblessness, not getting much help through this period. In the meantime, what do we have the government doing? The government gets Parliament to authorize $50 million for border security and ends up spending it on pork-barrelling in a member's riding hundreds of kilometres away from the border. What kind of responsibility is that?