House of Commons Hansard #64 of the 35th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was police.

Topics

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

I declare Motion No. 5 defeated.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Saint-Léonard Québec

Liberal

Alfonso Gagliano Liberalfor Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada

moved that the bill be concurred in.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

All those opposed will please say nay.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And more than five members having risen:

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Liberal

Don Boudria Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON

Mr. Speaker, if you were to request it, I believe you would find unanimous consent that the members who voted on the previous motion be recorded as having voted on the motion now before the House, and the Liberal members will be voting yes.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Bloc

René Laurin Bloc Joliette, QC

Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Quebecois will be voting nay.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Reform

Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley East, BC

Mr. Speaker, Reform Party members will be voting no unless instructed by their constituents to do otherwise.

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

John Solomon NDP Regina—Lumsden, SK

Mr. Speaker, New Democrats present this evening will be voting no on this matter.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

(Motion agreed to.)

Public Service Staff Relations ActGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on Motion No. 166.

The House resumed from June 13 consideration of the motion.

Financial Administration ActPrivate Members' Business

6:10 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

As is the practice, the division will be taken row by row, starting with the mover, then proceeding with those in favour of the motion sitting on the same side of the House as the mover. Then those in favour of the motion sitting on the other side of the House will be called. Those opposed to the motion will be called in the same order.

All those at my left in favour of the motion will please rise.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Financial Administration ActPrivate Members' Business

6:20 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

I declare the motion carried.

The House resumed from June 14 consideration of the motion.

Dangerous OffendersPrivate Members' Business

June 18th, 1996 / 6:20 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on Motion M-116 standing in the name of Ms. Meredith relating to Private Members' Business.

As is the practice, the division will be taken row by row, starting with the mover, and then proceeding with those in favour of the motion sitting on the same side of the House as the mover. All those at my left in favour of the motion will please rise.

(The House divided on the motion, which was negatived on the following division:)

Dangerous OffendersPrivate Members' Business

6:25 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Kilger)

I declare the motion lost.

That concludes the votes for this evening. The House will now proceed to the consideration of Private Members' Business as listed on today's Order Paper.

Canada Elections ActPrivate Members' Business

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Don Valley North, ON

moved that Bill C-276, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (registration of political parties), be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to address this issue again. It was discussed on September 27, 1994 in a similar bill which called for changes to the Canada Elections Act.

The purpose of this bill is to amend the Canada Elections Act to allow registration of political parties by the chief electoral officer only when the party nominates a candidate in at least seven provinces that have in aggregate at least 50 per cent of the population of all the provinces and at least half of the electoral districts in each of those provinces.

For democracy to work people have to participate. We had seven byelections a few months ago, five in the province of Quebec, one in Etobicoke North in metro Toronto and the other in Newfoundland. At that time the Bloc Quebecois, who are supposed to be the official opposition in this Parliament, declined to run candidates in Etobicoke North and Newfoundland because its agenda is not of national concern.

Yesterday a byelection was held in Hamilton East. The Liberal candidate, Sheila Copps, won the riding. Again the official opposition did not put forward a candidate. By definition official opposition means a party waiting to form the next government if the government in power falls so it can start a new process, a new beginning, with its own party. But in this case the official opposition totally ignored the fact it represents constituents and those constituents have the right to be heard and to discuss the issues.

On the other hand, the third party is the Reform Party with headquarters in Calgary. Its members claim it is a national party. Two weeks ago the Reform Party held a convention in Vancouver. Only 15 delegates from the province of Quebec showed up. The province of Quebec is 25 per cent of the population of Canada. Approximately seven million Canadians live in Quebec. However, only 15 people from Quebec went to the Reform national convention which had about 1,500 delegates. Only 1 per cent of the delegates at that convention were from Quebec.

Canada Elections ActPrivate Members' Business

6:25 p.m.

An hon. member

It is a new party.

Canada Elections ActPrivate Members' Business

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Don Valley North, ON

My colleague across the way says it is a new party. It has been around for nine years. How long is it going to be new? Its members sit in the House of Commons and claim they are the national opposition, and at the same time they claim they are a new party. There is no such thing as a new party.

I go back to the Hamilton East election. They forced the deputy prime minister to resign and the Prime Minister called a byelection. What happened? Five hundred thousand dollars of taxpayers' money was spent to conform to Reform Party policies. The Reform Party spent $45,000 to promote their candidate. What happened? Their candidate got 2,688 votes only. If we divide 2,688 into the $45,000 they spent, it means they spent over $15 per vote of taxpayers' money for no reason at all.

What happened to the Bloc Quebecois? It did not even bother putting up a candidate.

I hope the House passes my motion. The last time the Reform and Bloc Quebecois ganged up to defeat this bill. They did not allow it to be votable because the leader of the Reform Party and Lucien Bouchard are two sides of the same coin. They are both regional parties. They both sang the same tune every day of the week for the last almost three years. They have been dividing the country through their regional interests and Canada as a nation cannot benefit from in this process.

In the last election in 1993 there were 295 ridings. Thirteen political parties participated. All of them put candidates in each and every province, including Reform. It put candidates in all provinces except the province of Quebec. The Natural Law Party ran 451 candidates. Somehow Reform members do not accept the fact that they should become a national party and that is why they oppose my bill.

Marxist-Leninist Party put forward 51 candidates. The Bloc Quebecois put up 75 candidates in one province, the province of Quebec, which qualifies them to be a national party. It won 54 seats and became the official opposition. The Reform Party complained and asked why does the official opposition have to be separatists. It claims to be federalist and with only one seat less than the Bloc Quebecois so Reform members believe they should be the official opposition.

A party has to earn the title of being official opposition or national opposition. A party cannot be the official opposition or national opposition in this system if it is a separatist party or if it is a regional party.

When my bill was before the House previously I mentioned in my speech that when I was running for the Liberal Party in Don Valley North I saw signs in my riding which said: "We will run the country the way we run the campaign". Reformers ran in the campaign without Quebec. They ignored Quebec totally. If this is how they are going to run the country, God save us from the Reformers.

Canada Elections ActPrivate Members' Business

6:35 p.m.

Reform

Ken Epp Reform Elk Island, AB

You don't understand what the words mean.