In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher Miss Julia Coleman used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'

Although my seat is a contest between Labour and the Lib Dems it could well make the difference between a Labour and a Tory government at the next election. In terms of international development this choice is a very clear one.

The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy. It borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation no entity large or small public or private can thrive or survive intact with debts as huge as ours.

In the Pentagon Papers case the government asserted in the Supreme Court that the publication of the material was a threat to national security. It turned out it was not a threat to U.S. security. But even if it had been that doesn't mean that it couldn't be published.

You can't fall back on the private sector and say 'You take care of the nation's banking system.' That's a fundamental function of the government the Federal Reserve the Treasury and the FDIC etc. All of those agencies have a major role to play there.

There is a Western world. There is America. There is Great Britain and Germany and France and Russia and China and other nations. I doubt that there is one country amongst those I mentioned which has a desire to see Iran with its fundamentalist Islamic extremist government possessing nuclear weapons.

I'm not driven to get back into politics. It's not on my top five things to do before I die but saying that I may be in politics in the next year or the next ten years. I've been on the front line for 12 years four in state government eight on the national level.

Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

If you seek Hamilton's monument look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson but live in Hamilton's country a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government.

We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies. Our concern is the instability of our government as an ally. We are playing again with national and global security matters.

At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.

I have no doubt that the government of this great nation will work with its people to lead New Orleans and the Gulf Coast back to an enlightened proud safe part of the world.

If marriage really is a sacred institution then why is the government controlling it especially in a nation that affirms separation of church and state?

Whether Canada ends up as o-ne national government or two national governments or several national governments or some other kind of arrangement is quite frankly secondary in my opinion.

By the time Obama came into office Washington had already agreed over a period of a few weeks to a $700 billion government infusion into the world banking system. Nothing of the sort had ever been done before and it was done spit spot with very little national debate.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.