Stephen Harper

[The Budget, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to personally congratulate the new NDP leader on his election.

This government went to the people. We looked for a mandate for our budget and our economic action plan. We will govern according to that mandate.

[National Defence, March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am having a lot of trouble following the Liberal Party on this particular issue. For almost 10 years it had us involved in the development of the F-35s and spent hundreds of millions of dollars. Then, after the Liberals were defeated, they came out against it. Today they are mad that we have not yet signed a contract.

Obviously we will sign a contract when and if that is the appropriate thing to do. We will always ensure that when we reach the end of the useful lives of our present aircraft that we have the best aircraft for the Canadian Forces.

[41st General Election, March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this may be my last opportunity to address the leader of the NDP as the leader. I must say, reading over this householder for constituents, how delighted I am with the progress that we have made over the past few months. We have not only turned the leader of the NDP into a federalist but now, apparently, into a tax cutter and even into a Conservative.

[Employment, March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, not only does the government have a plan that is working for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity, I see that the leader of the NDP, in her most recent parliamentary bulletin to her constituents, actually praised a whole range of Conservative measures, all of the measures that she and her party actually voted against. However, I congratulate them on seeing the light and coming around to the Conservative--

[Government Services, March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, all of these questions will be answered in the budget. I encourage the NDP leader to wait for the budget.

[Health, March 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we have the same system as when he was in office.

It is true that some of these problems are being felt in other countries. The reality of the situation in our system is that the provinces administer the health care system and they are the buyers of most of these medications. In some cases, they sole sourced these purchases from a firm that is now having some difficulty. However, we are working with them to try and address this problem.

[National Defence, March 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this is a matter of public record. At the time, I was referring to a memorandum of understanding. It has not been a secret that the government has not signed a contract. The fact is our country does not pay any increase on the development cost. That is the arrangement. It is also a fact that we have provisioned in our budget funds for future aircraft and we are prepared to live within that budget.

[41st General Election, March 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that new allegations are being made every day, but now, every day, evidence of the Liberal Party's illegal behaviour is coming to light. I am telling the Liberal Party the same thing that I told the other parties in the House: the Liberals must provide all of their information in order to assist Elections Canada in its investigation.

[41st General Election, March 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said repeatedly, an investigation is already under way and producing results. I would like to point out that illegal calls made by the opposition have also been discovered. I would also note that every time the NDP makes allegations outside the House, it has to apologize. It is time the NDP acted responsibly and gave all of its true information to Elections Canada.

[Health, March 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the so-called NDP plan in the motion contains exactly the steps the government has already been following for some time.

As we all know, the provinces are responsible for purchasing their drugs and, in this case, they purchased some drugs on a sole source basis and that source has come under stress. Obviously, this is a difficult problem, one that is not easily dealt with, but the Minister of Health has been working collaboratively with the provinces to look at options and to facilitate those options.