Mr. Speaker, 1867 brought a sacred covenant, with free people governing themselves, rising above region and religion and building a sovereign nation on ordered liberty, under laws we wrote ourselves. That promise was betrayed by decades of central control.
The Laurentian consensus treated provinces as problems to manage. Resource wealth was redistributed, development was blocked and jurisdictions were ignored. It was an ideological project from Trudeau the father, which was continued by the son.
Canadians reject it. We hunger for restoration. Canada is the third-oldest democracy on the planet. It is the heir to the Magna Carta and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Any self-respecting nation fights for its existence. Ours is a federation of equal partners and a vital contribution to the most successful civilization in history. It is being dismantled and it must be restored.
The choice is clear. Either we decline as a grievance-ridden middle power under central control or reclaim the strength and ambition of a rising major power. We will keep the promise of 1867, the promise of our founding and the promise for generations to come.