Mr. Speaker, it is truly an honour for me today to support my colleague from Beaver River and Bill C-210. I will start with a quote, if I may: "People, it has been said, want a government that listens, not lectures".
When I was younger one of my goals in life was to represent my country in a responsible fashion through entering the political arena. I was lucky enough to do that through my constituents in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.
Prior to the Reform Party coming into existence, I did not feel there was any political party around that truly stood for democratic principles, where the politicians truly represented the wishes of their constituents.
One of the things that attracted me to the Reform Party as opposed to any other political party was its commitment to democratic reforms, reforms that would give the power back to the people. I feel putting the power back where it belongs is fundamental to a truly democratic society.
A primary example of this is the ability of the public to recall elected representatives when they are misusing their position or are not representing their electorate in the manner they were led to believe they would be represented. This is not pie in the sky reform but is a very real part of democratic reforms in a number of countries. We need to look at our neighbours south of the border to see that reform, democratic principles and recall are integral parts of both state and local politics. As mentioned before it also occurs in Switzerland, a model of democracy.
What is the mechanism of recall in Canada? First, as has been proposed by my esteemed colleague, there would have to be a relatively high petition threshold of 50 per cent plus one. This would be an attempt to avoid any spurious attempts at recalling MPs by the opposition. I hope this allays some of the fears of my colleagues across the way in government.
Second, members of Parliament must be given adequate time to get a track record, that is recall cannot be instituted before 18 months in the tenure of a member of Parliament.
Third, recall can only be applied once during the tenure of an MP in any four or five year period of time.
Recall is a remedy of the partisan block voting that has plagued Canadian politics for decades. Members vote now in many cases according to what their party wishes them to vote. This is the antithesis of democracy. Hand in hand though with recall there is another excellent opportunity for the government to democratize the system. That is, we must see that every vote in this House on a bill is not a vote of confidence in the government. Rather, if a bill were defeated, we would have a vote of confidence. This is a liberating thing and would enable the members of this House to truly represent the wishes of their constituents and they would not be hamstrung by party lines.
It would only take the Prime Minister a couple of minutes to make a statement in the House to liberate the members in this House and enable us to do that. I implore him to do that.
A concern about recall that has been mentioned by my colleagues in the government that I will put to rest right now is that it would enable special interest groups to manipulate the electorate and exert undue influence in the political process through continually exercising a petition to have a member recalled.
The reality is very different and will not occur because the electorate is not gullible, It is not mindless or ill-informed but then it does not bend to the whims of special interest groups. We should have more confidence in the ability of the electorate to not fall for spurious attempts at defeating a member of Parliament. That is why this bill will be excellent for democracy in this country.
This has been borne out many times in studies and is one of the reasons why it has been so successful with our colleagues to the south of our border.
My esteemed colleague from Beaver River has brought about and is raising this matter partly because the people desperately want recall. A few examples are evident right now and appropriate.
In my home province of British Columbia in the 1991 provincial election the people were asked do they or do they not want recall. Eighty-one per cent of the people in British Columbia said that they want recall now.
We in the Reform Party asked 1,500 Canadians across this country if they wanted recall or did not want recall. Seventy-five per cent of them wanted recall. This is something the public desperately wants. I think we should exert our influence, our duty and our role to adopt this great bill.
There are a number of other initiatives that I think we ought to address in tying in with our ability and our wishes in the Reform Party to democratize the system. One of those is binding national referenda and the other is citizens' initiatives, both democratic forums that I think would strongly improve the way in which business is done in the House.
Some would argue that these reforms somehow enable elected officials to shirk their responsibilities and get them off the hook in making difficult decisions. I submit that there is no higher power in this land, in a democratic society, than the will of the Canadian people.
We elected officials are merely agents of that will. It is true that we are elected to make decisions on their behalf but I still hold very dear to my heart the idea that the power of the people is of primary importance.
I quote Thomas Jefferson who said in 1820: "I know of no safer depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion".
It is our Reform Party belief of direct democracy which distinguishes it from the other three mainline political parties. These democratic reforms are what I believe in and are what we as a party believe in. It is what we will fight for.
I hope other like-minded democratic parliamentarians will think likewise, know that this Bill C-210 is integral and important for democratic reforms and is equally important to making our Parliament more effective.
I implore them to adopt this worthy bill.
