October 3, 1997 (36th Parliament, 1st Session)

Mr. Pat Martin

Mr. Speaker, I did talk about the redistribution of wealth in my speech. I suppose we are arguing that there is sufficient wealth in this nation to provide for the basics of a family to survive.
I was once fortunate to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak when he tried to explain the difference between the social democratic view of the world and the other side, the corporate community, the neo-conservatives, the neo-liberals. The analogy he used is “If you have five children and only three pork chops the solution is not to kill two of the children. Neither is it a solution to divide those three pork chops into five equal pieces. Then none of the kids have enough to eat and they all go to bed hungry”.
The social democratic position would be to challenge the whole assumption that there are only three pork chops. The challenge is to ask why, in the richest and most powerful civilization in the history of the world, there is not enough wealth to provide for the basic needs of a family to survive.
I do not think that is flat earth society and I resent the implication.