John McKay moved, — That the motion be amended by replacing all the words after “That” with the words “, given that fair treatment for all provinces is vital for Canada's natural resources sector, the Committee invite the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, MP to explain the following quotes:
a) A quote that he made during a speech to the Council for National Policy in June 1997:
“Obviously, the issue here is not slavery, but the appeasement of ethnic nationalism. For years, we've had this Quebec separatist movement. For years, we elected Quebec prime ministers to deal with that, Quebec prime ministers who were committed federalists who would lead us out of the wilderness. For years, we have given concessions of various kinds of the province of Quebec, political and economic, to make them happier. This has not worked”
and
b) A quote that appeared in from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix on May 24, 1997, in reference to a 1997 Reform Party television ad that had crossed out the faces of Quebec politicians:
“Another Reformer, former MP Stephen Harper, said other parties have played along for 30 years that it's better to have a leader from a certain region. He cited former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney, as well as Chretien and Charest, who were going to reconcile Quebec to the rest of Canada. It's fairly obvious that this hasn't solved the problem, so it's not surprising that someone should make the opposite case that we need a leader from somewhere else”
and
c) A quote in from May 2002 (CBC News, May 30, 2002) where in reference to Atlantic Canada, where he said:
“There is dependence in the region that breeds a culture of defaitism.””.