Bill Blaikie

[Iraq, May 5th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the right hon. Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister will know that people all around the world are horrified by the pictures that have been coming out of Iraq in the last few days. President Bush has rightly gone on Arab television today to explain his position and how abhorrent he finds these acts by his fellow Americans.

Has the Prime Minister made any official statement in this regard? Did he convey to President Bush before his statement this morning the concern that obviously Canadians have about these human rights violations and the fact that they do so very little to contribute to the cause of freedom?

[Health, May 4th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, this is the party that every time made the Liberals do the right thing or they would not have done it by themselves.

The Prime Minister used the word publicly funded. Will he talk to the House about whether or not he is in favour of private delivery of publicly funded services? What is the government position on that? How about a clear answer on that one?

[Health, May 4th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I do not have a question for the President of the Treasury Board, but if I did, I would begin by telling him to pick on somebody his own size.

My question though is for the Prime Minister. On April 20 the health minister made what the Prime Minister's Office referred to at the time as a major speech on the future of health care. In that speech the health minister clearly spoke about flexibility on private for profit delivery of health care.

I have a very simple question for the Prime Minister. Can he tell us whether the minister was speaking for the government in that speech?

[Health, May 3rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, just over 20 years ago medicare was threatened by extra billing and user fees. When I was going after the then minister of health, Monique Bégin, to do something about extra billing and user fees, she did not get up and say “We are not going to promote user fees and we are not going to promote extra billing. We are just going to allow them”. She brought in legislation to deal with it.

That is what we want the government to do with privatization. It should do something about what is happening to medicare and just not say that it will not promote it.

[Health, May 3rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals, when it comes to health care, are just unbelievable. The Minister of Health says that he does not want Canadians paying for their health care with their credit card. He wants them to pay for it with their health card. Yet over the last 10 years of the Liberal government, more and more Canadians have been paying for medically necessary services with their credit card under the watch of the Liberals.

What the minister said last week was not an aberration. In speech after speech these people will not say that they want to protect public delivery of health care.

I want to ask the Deputy Prime Minister this. Was the Minister of Health's speech on April 20, in which he basically said what he said last week, vetted by the PMO?

[National Defence, April 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am tempted to ask the Liberals another question on their position on health care but it seems that they are just making it up as they go along. One day it is publicly funded, the next day it is for profit and the next day it is public delivery. We cannot keep track of it.

I will go back to the Minister of National Defence on star wars. He criticized the Conservatives and the New Democrats for having a position on star wars and national missile defence. Could he tell the House why he believes Canadians do not deserve to know the true Liberal position until after the election?

[National Defence, April 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, you will note that the Minister of National Defence could not come up with any difference between himself and the Conservatives on this issue, just as there is no difference between the Liberals and Conservatives when it comes to for profit health care and a number of other issues.

I want to ask the Minister of National Defence why are they hiding their position? It is obvious now that Washington understands that some commitment has been given by Canada with respect to the early stages of national missile defence, which by Washington's own admission and documentation will lead to the weaponization of space. Why are the Liberals in denial about the true reality of their own position?

[National Defence, April 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, this seems to be the week in which Liberals reveal just how identical to the Conservatives they really are. First it was on the question of for profit health care and now it is on the question of national missile defence. Both positions, of course, the government was interested in hiding and not revealing to Canadians before the election. It is obvious that this is the case with national missile defence.

Is the Minister of National Defence opposed to national missile defence? If he is not, could he then tell us what the difference is between the Liberal and Conservative position?

[Health, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of Health is so interested in the public delivery of health care, which incidentally he did not say in question period today, and neither did the Prime Minister, but apparently he said it earlier today, why was it not in his speech a week ago?

Why was it not in the throne speech? Why do we never hear from the government that it is committed to the public, non-profit delivery of health care? Why do we always get weasel words?

[Health, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals are looking for a wedge issue with the Conservatives, perhaps they should look to something other than health, because yesterday the Minister of Health revealed what the NDP has been saying all along, that there is not one whit of difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives when it comes to the place of for profit delivery of health care in this country.

Is the Minister of Health not embarrassed to have been misleading the country for so long now with respect to the Liberal position with his mantra about the Canada Health Act, when all along he has known that the Liberal position has been to allow private, for profit delivery of health care?