Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise to address this beautiful chamber. I was somewhat interested by my colleague across the way wanting to table a very important document, the Liberal Party of Canada's platform, “Growing Canada's Middle Class”. It is a very important document. It has been read by millions of Canadians. Canadians realized in the last national election that there was only one political party that was truly concerned and committed to growing Canada's middle class. That is one of the reasons Canadians in every region of our country supported our Prime Minister, the Liberal Party and the Liberal candidates. It was in good part because of the commitment to Canada's middle class and those aspiring to be a part of it. One would think the Conservatives learned something from that last federal election.
The last few days have been somewhat interesting, in seeing the leader of the Conservative Party being caught between one buddy and another. We know that the Conservative leader has a deep admiration for and personal friendship with Stephen Harper and does a great deal of consulting and work with the former prime minister. Many would argue that the former Conservative prime minister gives the marching orders for the Conservative Party here in opposition. That is being challenged a little nowadays by the premier of Ontario, who seems to say “jump” and the Conservative leader asks, “How high?”
It was interesting watching question period today. It was a fairly good example of the degree to which the national Conservative Party here in Ottawa seems to want to buy into what Premier Ford is trying to sell Ontario. Canadians from coast to coast to coast should be somewhat concerned. We could talk about the many different aspects of the cuts that are being proposed, but today in question period there was one aspect that was really highlighted. That was the cuts to francophone educational services. These are some fairly significant cuts. We had political parties from all sides of the House, except the Conservatives, stand up and recognize how important—