Madam Speaker: I have two rulings for the House.

I am ruling on a point of order raised by the opposition House leader (Mr. Ashton) during Members' Statements on April 16, 1996. The point of order concerned comments attributed to the First Minister (Mr. Filmon). As I indicated at the time, because I did not hear the comments in question I took the matter under advisement to read Hansard.

Having done so, I see there are no words on the record attributed to the Premier. I am therefore unable to rule whether the language was in order or not.

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Madam Speaker: During contributions to a motion for a matter of urgent public importance on April 16, I took under advisement a point of order raised by the government House leader (Mr. Ernst). His point of order concerned words used by the honourable member for Thompson (Mr. Ashton) which the government House leader argued imputed unworthy motives to the Minister of Health (Mr. McCrae). The words at issue were: “This government, driven by the agenda, the private agendas of private home care companies and the private agenda of this minister is bringing us to the brink--”

I have reviewed Hansard and I am ruling that the government House leader did not have a point of order. In my opinion, the honourable member for Thompson did not impute unworthy motives to the minister. But I would remind the member that provocative language usually generates a response and often leads to points of orders which may detract from the issues at hand.

I would ask the honourable member for Thompson and all honourable members in this House to choose their words carefully.