Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague's comments. Aside from the breathtaking, staggering hypocrisy, the shedding of his political skin is one thing but he also completely abandons any memory of the factual basis of the debt load in this country. He refuses to acknowledge that when the Conservative government came to power in 1984 the spiralling deficit left by the Trudeau administration was one never seen in a G-7 country in the history of the world.
I hear a lot of chirping coming from the other side. I know we have now changed the voting laws so that the Liberal government can now garner votes from inside prison but they may soon have an opportunity to campaign directly there for that support, Mr. Speaker, in your constituency.
The member shows dexterity in sidestepping some of the accountability of his own government and is very deft at refusing to mention that his government is mired in the largest fiscal scam ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. What he is actually demonstrating is something that a friend of mine, Donald, once described as podia-dexterity, which is the ability to put both feet in one's mouth at the same time.
I want to ask him a direct question dealing with the offshore accord, which was jammed into the omnibus, blunderbuss budget implementation bill that is before the House. What the government did, again in a very deceitful way, after having signed a stand alone deal with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to give 100% of the revenue stream from the offshore oil and gas to those very deserving provinces, is it hid it in with 24 other items and suggested that somehow it was an all or nothing offer to Canadians, that they had to take all of these unrelated items or take nothing and then somehow hold this over people's heads that they had to take this.
The people in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador understand what the government is trying to do. It is trying to back out of the commitment that the Prime Minister made in desperation during an election campaign and now it is trying to somehow weasel away from that commitment that is costing those provinces millions while the interest accumulates on their provincial deficits.
Why is it that the hon. member neglects to acknowledge that the offshore oil and gas accord can be a stand alone bill, brought before Parliament, passed immediately in the House with the support of all members and we can put that implementation process in place, allow those provinces to start receiving the revenue to deal with the infrastructure challenges and the education and health care challenges that they are still suffering under as a result of cuts of his now newly adopted government?
Why is it that he can stand in his place and be such an adamant apologist for a government he once so fiercely condemned when he was on this side of the House before he abandoned his party and his principles?
