Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, through the Honourable Madam Chair, I do not have concerns at all, because I've been through the process once, in Charlottetown, and we didn't have seven provinces out of ten; we had ten out of ten. We even had the territorials--there were only two territorial governments at

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, there is a lot of hesitation on the other side of the aisle. On my side of the aisle, I don't think there's an absolute majority of all the senators who are labelled “Conservative”. But I'm treated with respect. I'm not vilified. I don't feel that the others on the other sid

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Through the chair again, we don't envision the senators of the day being an enemy in any way. We've told a number of them that the first person from any province to resign and run would probably be elected in a landslide. Secondly, we are not trying to force any of them out, peri

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  My comment would be that it would take me, Madam Chair, back to.... I think I'm still failing here; I should be calling you the Honourable Madam Chair.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Thank you. I think first of all that the kind of Senate we're looking for is the Australian Senate. They thought they had a constitutional crisis because at one time--they had an equal number of senators, all elected, per state in Australia--they came to a point where there was

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, the Saskatchewan Party. Good. Thank you. I was stalled there for a minute. There is a party in Quebec that comes back to power every once in a while too, not just the NDP, but also the Credit Party something.... Pardon?

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  No, I'm talking about British Columbia.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, the Social Credit Party. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, I have a lot of things going through my mind. If you had that many different parties and you were required to get your majority from that many different parties, the point we try to make is that that would be somethin

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Through the chair again, no, I do not look at anything as a roadblock. I've been with this for a long time, so there have been all kinds of suggestions by all kinds of experts and pundits and people, and we're seeing them again as I go public with some of the discussions with the

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Through the chair again, Madam Chair, to answer your question specifically, the committee has never ever held a poll, but very early on in our work, which would have been probably about the third year of our work—we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary on August 13 of this ye

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  We have not gone into that depth of detail on the override, but I can tell you it implies that there must be a majority of senators from each of the seven provinces out of ten, and they have to represent.... So it doesn't matter how many senators you have. If you have six, you ne

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes. Of all the papers we went through when we asked Senator Segal to look up things, this was the most simple. The Parliament acts of Britain of 1911 and 1945 simply didn't work. They were too complicated and didn't have a time limitation that would prevent the House of Lords fr

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. On that point, I would have to strongly disagree with you, for the simple reason that I have been witness to a summons by the Prime Minister of the day to deal with health care. All of the premiers were at the meeting. It was on television. The Prime Mini

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Through the chair, I'd like to answer your questions in reverse order if I may. The House of the Provinces being the Senate I think is a solution to many of the problems this country has had. The provinces, under the Constitution Act itself, or the law of sovereignty over health

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, through the chair again, Mr. Reid, I actually wrote a brief amendment to Bill S-224, suggesting that instead of forcing the vacancies to be filled on a specific timetable, they be filled after a consultative process with the provinces, making it as simple as I could while st