Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on June 5th, 2006

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I'll share another definition with you that I'm sure some members of the opposition would like as the definition of some committees: a committee is a group of individuals who, by themselves, can do nothing, but together agree that nothing can be done. I think there are some members of this committee who would like to see this bill delayed as long as possible, so they're trying to invent some sort of hysteria about 15 amendments that you propose, which would take about an hour and a half to review and vote on through the regular course of a clause-by-clause amendment.

The section of the Canada Elections Act that you were concerned about, that said that a form not filled out would keep a member from sitting in his seat--what statute was that?

[Rob Walsh]

It's in the Canada Elections Act.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

It's currently in the Canada Elections Act. When was it put in? Was it Bill C-24?

[Rob Walsh]

No. We actually did some research on that. We found that it's been there since the 1920s. What's proposed in Bill C-2 is along the same lines.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

How many members have not sat in their chairs as a result?

[Rob Walsh]

I don't know the answer to that.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Well, obviously, it's a big problem.

[Rob Walsh]

I'm told that it was one member.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

One member. What year was that?

[Rob Walsh]

The year the member was not sitting, I'm told, was 2006.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

It was in 2006, and we haven't even heard about it.

[Rob Walsh]

Well, these things aren't necessarily made public, I suppose.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Every member in 2006 voted in the House of Commons, so it's obviously not been that big a problem.

[Rob Walsh]

I don't know the facts of that case.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

It hasn't manifested itself in the House of Commons or any of the caucuses. No one here even seems to know who that member is.

I'm only saying that if this enormous problem you've pointed to has existed for 80 years, on a section in a bill that requires a politician to fill out a bloody form, but in 80 years you have one example that seems to not even have manifested itself in any serious way, it's maybe not such a big problem after all.

[Rob Walsh]

Mr. Chairman, I need to remind the member that in the last Parliament we had two or three votes that were won by one vote or were tied and the Speaker had to break the tie. A member's presence could arguably make a difference.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I remember it well.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Never once did that provision in the Canada Elections Act ever impede any of those votes or any other vote.

[Rob Walsh]

I don't know.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

You pointed to an amazing problem in theory, but it doesn't seem to have manifested itself in practice in any real way.

[Rob Walsh]

Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Could I respond to that?

That was the kind of response that was given in the early days of environmentalists. It was an uphill struggle to bring awareness to the fact that the unseen impact of various activities is real.

I'm not an environmentalist, and I'm not here to preach environmental causes, but I have what I call my paint-can theory of the environment. I wanted to throw out some paint cans this weekend. I took them out of the basement and put them in the garbage. My wife said that I couldn't do that and I had to take them to a special place.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I have to say I'm afraid that in some of the analogies you're using, it sounds like you have a whole group of solutions that are looking for problems.

We're of course willing to look at all 15 of your amendments. I'm sure that we'll give an hour and a half to those amendments, which is what they generally take.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I have a point of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

On a point of order, Ms. Jennings.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Yes. I believe that any witness who comes before our committee or any committee of the House has the right to courtesy. I believe that not only the tone but even the substance of the comments by the member, Mr. Poilievre, are insulting to our witnesses.