 We'll support the government on issues if it's essential to the country but our primary responsibility is not to prop up the government, our responsibility is to provide an opposition and an alternative government for Parliament and for Canadians. |
| This party will not take its position based on public opinion polls. We will not take a stand based on focus groups. We will not take a stand based on phone-in shows or householder surveys or any other vagaries of pubic opinion. |
| Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it. |
| There is a Canadian culture that is in some ways unique to Canada, but I don't think Canadian culture coincides neatly with borders. |
| Make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact it is less bilingual today than it has ever been. |
| The government can only be brought down because it alienates several parties in the House. |
| We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies. Our concern is the instability of our government as an ally. We are playing again with national and global security matters. |
| I think in Atlantic Canada, because of what happened in the decades following Confederation, there is a culture of defeat that we have to overcome. |
| If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh away. |
| I do not intend to dispute in any way the need for defence cuts and the need for government spending cuts in general. I do not share a not in my backyard approach to government spending reductions. |
| I don't get into that second guessing of myself publicly. |
| First of all, I can't forget my first responsibility - which is to be the Leader of the Opposition and that's to provide an alternative government. |
