Donald James Johnston
Liberal
Mr. Donald J. Johnston (Westmount):
These are my first remarks in this House, Mr. Speaker. Indeed, it is a great honour and privilege for a number of reasons. First of all, simply being an elected representative of the Canadian people is a great honour, as is representing the riding of Westmount, which, as hon. members know, will soon be redesignated as Saint Henri-Westmount. It is an unexpected pleasure to have the opportunity to listen to and follow the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Clark), and accordingly I would like to depart from some of the general comments which I intended to make at the outset about my riding-which I understand are traditional and to which I will come back in due course-to comment briefly upon some of the statements made by the Leader of the Opposition with regard to the budget.
I have sometimes been a critic of budgets in the past, but I must say that I am proud, as a humble backbencher, to be associated, however indirectly, with the budget handed down last week.
Subtopic: THE BUDGET