Thursday, March 16, 1967

Walter R. Shaw: We didn't need that one on tape, and you remember that too.

Now, spending money. What about the schools in this province? Where we

‘ didn’t have one Regional school, we have fifteen. Fifteen when we went out of power.

Two vocational and technical schools. What about our roads which were brought to

every district in this province; we were not playing with certain district to get all the roads, we divided them up.

Some Member: Not very well. Didn’t give any to the Murray Harbour district.

Walter R. Shaw: Oh indeed. Now listen my friend I am afraid that the more that you open your mouth the more difficult it is going to become. In the last two years of the “Grit-rule” in this province there was forty miles of road went into the Murray Harbour district.

Some Member: That was a Minister of Highways.

Honourable Keir Clark: We had a good government at that time.

Walter R. Shaw: Yes, it did, but what did they get in the other districts? There was more put in the Murray Harbour district than the other districts in Kings County. That was your record and there are other districts as well throughout this province. What did you get up in First Prince in those years? You got plenty in some favourable districts in the province of Prince Edward Island, but it wasn’t divided up among the people of this province.

Honourable Keir Clark: That's why you started seven years.

Walter R. Shaw: But, but we had it as soon as we came into power, we didn’t wait twenty-three years and give them nothing like you people did. That is your record. Twenty three years and you put forty miles of pavement down in Murray Harbour in two years. Twenty-eight miles in one years in the smaller district in the provxnce.

Now there was another thing that I would like to bring to the attention of this House. That it was a period of basic construction, there were new jobs, new oppor- tunities, increased economic stability. That is what happened in this province, and in every portion of our economy there was a definite and direct strengthening of our position. Our departments were well staffed and we had a satisfied Civil Service for the first time in the history of this province. I see there is something in the Draft Address to increase the salaries and i am in favour of paying Civil Servants a de- cent salary, but what was the condition on 1959 when we came into power? Star- vation. Civil Servants were afraid to open their mouths in case they would be fired out. Girls working in here in Charlottetown at $1,100 and $1,200 a year. It was a disgraceful situation! What is the situation today? The people were satisfied, they were happy with the conditions that we had, they felt that this province at last was

' underway and becoming strong in an industrial sense. Now, have we got the favourable reaction at the present time? People recognized the government was doing an excellent job, that was the record we passed into the hands of the Liberal Party on July 27th this year. There is a growing realization in this province today of uneasiness, a growing realization that the job is too big for this Government. A feeling of unrest, of instability, of destruction of a program that was strong and effective. I propose to deal at some length with these matters and point out to the people of the province the weaknesses, the irresponsibility, and the unfortunate posi- tion the disaster that the government has brought this province to during this short period. I intend to s I: my mind frankly and without reserve. Honestly, to give a picture of what has happening within recent months in the press, and at poli- tical meetings, on T.V., some of the most extraordinary and misleading statements have been made to the people of this province, and these must be corrected. We are not now fighting at long-distance. We are not fighting and make statements in some places in this province where there is no one to meet them, we are fighting at close quarters. There is going to be no shooting from ambush, there is going to be no hit- and-run tactics in here. We are facing each other across the floor of this House and

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