Legislative Assembly

Atlantic Development Agency, as well as the Dairy Farming program which has re- cently been discontinued. These have all more or less collapsed since the Liberals took over in Ottawa, and later, here. I don’t know of any new developments which agenc1es.

have happened in this Province in the past year and one-half under any of these

Fortunately, that great Liberal, Mr. Walter Gordon, has at last bowed out. We are well rid of him.

Hon. Robert E. Campbell: So has Churchill.

J..Cyrill Sinnott: Mr. Gordon was, and is, a dedicated and dangerous fellow, and he W111_be remembered, I hope, forever in the Maritimes as the fellow who advocated putting us on the one-way train to the factories of Ontario and Quebec.

Hon. Robert E. Campbell: Why didn’t you vote for him when you were a delegate?

J. Cyril Sinnott: It remains to be seen whether there are enough small “c” Conser— vatlves left in the Liberal Party to give us responsible government in Ottawa for the next few months. (Applause)

Canadians, and especially we in Prince Edward Island, are fortunate that there is a man in the House of Commons who will, in the near future, help put this country back on the road to prosperity, and I refer, of course, to Mr. Stanfield. (Applause) It is evident to me that we are going to have to wait in this Province until he forms a government before we can expect any improvement in our relations with the Fed-

eral Government. Hon. Robert E. Campbell: You will be grayer than you are now.

.I. (‘yril Sinnott: When one speaks of Dominion-Provincial affairs a very wide field is opened up, and right now it also involves the possibility (of a new Canadian Con- stitution. Since this is so, I suggest that we must formulate a policy and a con- stitutional position for this Province. And we have to do that immediately. I would have expected that these important matters would be discussed in this Assembly this year. This matter is much too important to be left to one or two people. I am re- minded of the prolonged and often acrimonious debates which took place in this House during the many sessions over one hundred years ago. At that time it was found necessary to have a committee of ten or so from both sides of the House to conduct the negotiations. Today we find a more apathetic government; it was re- presented by the Premier only at the recent Conference on the Constitution. Our Premier's role at that Conference has been hailed by the press of Central Canada as that of a new statesman, and well they might so describe him, because he is careful not to antagonize either of the big central provinces.

I believe that our Premier suggested three things at the Conference. and I agree with all three, but they were not extensive enough.

(1) That the French language should be given universal recognition in the whole of Canada.

Now there is no one on this side of the House who could quarrel with that. It should have been done years ago.

(2) He said he was in favour of a strong Central Federal Government.

Now this is a debatable issue, because the degree of strength of the Federal Government is not described and this is a question on which we Islanders must form an opinion. Because a strong Central Government can be a two-edged sword depend-

ing upon the ends to which it directs its energies.

(3) That our main problem in this Province is the economic disparity which exists between here and Central Canada.

No one could quarrel with that statement either, but again, there is no sug- gested solution.

These last two matters. the powers to be relegated to Ottawa in some future Constitution, and a solution to the problem of economic disparity are the crux of

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