Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank all of my hon. colleagues for their interventions. I appreciate their support for this bill in principle.
Let me respond briefly to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs who was the only member to, in a sense, speak against the legislation by suggesting that it was unnecessary.
This bill has been endorsed by The Royal Canadian Legion, by virtually every major veterans organization and by 65,000 Canadians who signed the petition that I tabled in this place. All felt that this would be a worthwhile symbolic gesture for parliament to formally endorse the two minute wave of silence across the country. The parliamentary secretary seems to suggest that the government has this matter well in hand. It does not.
Precisely witness the evidence of a declining recognition of the moment of silence across the country. I referenced the polling data which showed a really quite shockingly deplorable lack of public knowledge about our military history: 65% of young Canadians did not know what D-Day was about; 11% could not name two countries Canada fought against in the first world war; and 69% did not know that Vimy Ridge was an important Canadian victory. That was 69% of young Canadians from 18 to 25. Let us wake up here. Nearly 7 out of 10 young Canadians did not know about the most significant battle in Canadian military history and 67% did not know that November 11 was the end of the great war. Two-thirds of young Canadians did not even know the significance of Remembrance Day.
The parliamentary secretary gave us a speech as though the government had this commemoration of our military history well in hand. It does not.
This is not a partisan point. I am not blaming this government. I am blaming a couple of generations of Canadian leadership that failed to emphasize the centrality to our history of the sacrifices of our war debt. That is why this bill, on behalf of all parliamentarians, if passed will be a formal way to recognize this very important symbol of silence for two minutes on Remembrance Day across the country.
Furthermore, the British parliament had the good sense to adopt this when asked to by the royal legion. The Ontario provincial parliament has done likewise through a private member's bill.
In closing, once again I do appreciate the support in principle. I have heard members of other opposition parties invite me to seek to make this votable. I want to emphasize one more time that this came before the committee which was charged with determining which private members' bills were votable or not. That committee knew that the bill had received more petitions in support of it than any other piece of legislation or motion or policy before this parliament since it convened; 65,000 signatures.
On behalf of those 65,000 Canadians, on behalf of the several hundred thousand members of the Royal Canadian Legion and other veterans organizations who have endorsed this bill and on behalf of the members of all parties who seem to endorse it in principle, I seek leave to obtain unanimous consent to make Bill C-297 votable.