A good word for it.
The party opposite suggests that some things be done for Canadian families. Reform will reduce our support of health care so we will only fund core health care services. This means individuals will need supplementary private medical insurance to supplement that core.
Reformers would make changes to the EI program and have talked about eliminating parental leave. That is hardly a policy that supports family. They will eliminate the Canada pension plan. They want to replace it with RRSPs. Again individuals will have to buy into their own plans. It seems the people who will be helped by this will be the banks and insurance companies that sell RRSPs and private insurance. Perhaps they are the beneficiaries.
I agree with the party across the way that low income families will get tax cuts. That is absolutely right. However high income families will get even bigger tax cuts, and that is not the way we work in this country. When we have limited financial resources we make sure Canadians who need the help most receive the most help.
Several times in today's debate we have heard members opposite hark back to the good old days of the fifties and sixties. That speaks volumes. It shows the Reform Party looks to the past. It is not capable of handling the present and certainly has no vision for the future.
More than that, it shows the Reform Party does not understand the basic fabric of Canada. It does not understand that we are more than individuals, that we are more than just small islands unto ourselves, or that Canadians form a society. For 50 years we have recognized that we have a collective responsibility to each other, that one Canadian helps another Canadian who helps another Canadian, and that we have the vehicles in government to allow that to happen.
That is why Canadians support an old age security system paid for by general tax revenue. That is why they support a public pension plan so the wealthiest Canadians are not the only ones who can afford a pension. That is why Canadians support public health care, to ensure every Canadian has an opportunity for health care and not just the wealthy.
That is what the fabric of Canada is about. That is what Canadians support and that is why Canadians elected a Liberal government and will elect a Liberal government again.