Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting that when I start talking about the record and the failures of the NDP, all of a sudden they are quick to cause disorder. I would suggest that it is the embarrassment of their record that offends those New Democrats and why they seem to be so quick to buy anything that that Liberal Prime Minister is selling. I will outline specifically the definitive proof of why that is the case.
When those New Democrats, late last year, had a convention, they drew a line in the sand, saying that they would get out of that coalition agreement, they would not have confidence in the leader, the member for Burnaby South, and that was enough, they did not want anything to do with those Liberals and this coalition confidence and supply nonsense if they could not get the job done.
However, what was the first thing that the leader of the New Democratic Party did? Well, he paused and effectively said, “Well, you know, we simply need more time. We are working out the details of what that might look like.” Then there were some very concerning allegations about changing some of the electoral system and whatnot. We then saw that there were some red lines, which certainly members of that party talked a lot about, on how they were going to have this fulsome program that was going to be announced and it was going to solve every Canadian's problem. There was going to be no issue with it.
Then, what was announced? I would suggest that if we were to catch any of those New Democratic members off-camera, they would be sorely disappointed about the work that the member for Burnaby South did and the so-called negotiations that led to the program that we have here before us today, which covers little, costs lots and has many unanswered questions about whether the benefit would be actualized to Canadians who need it. I think that that is the proof point that this NDP is interested in nothing more than the photo-ops and the illusion that its members can have a communications plan. It is a sad state of affairs when we have such laziness masquerading as public policy. I would suggest that this debate that we have before us is proof point, and this offends those New Democrats.
In fact, it was interesting, because when we look back at the history of the CCF, and the many involved with that, there was a true desire to see that the social gospel movement was much of the driving force behind the history of why that party even started. Yet, they have abandoned those—