Mr. Speaker, in my experience as the past chairman of the Forum of Federations, an organization which my dear friend spoke so effectively about tonight, the notion that we simply abolish the Senate, that somehow the House can perform this with some magic formula without understanding that it is fundamentally a constitutional institution, a federal institution, is, as he said very well, pure and simple nonsense. It does not respond to the fact that we have a Constitution and that we have institutions in that Constitution.
Reforming the Senate is not easy. We have tried to do it at different times. We on this side are willing to discuss with anybody what kind of process one would go through to improve the Senate or to make it better.
The member has spoken effectively on behalf of the entire Liberal Party in saying to the minister that he cannot improvise a constitutional change without the full participation of the provinces, without the approval of the Supreme Court of Canada and without understanding what the political consequences of such a change would be.