That is true.
I wanted to ask this other question, and I have a feeling it will take more time than we have, so I'll pose the question now, and if you can't answer it now, then I'll just remind you of it when I get my second round.
You were the chief electoral officer when the last referendum took place in 1992. I just want to go through some facts that are relevant here. The Referendum Act received royal assent on June 23, 1992. A referendum was held on October 26, 1992, four months and three days later. The actual question was one that was crafted at the tail end of August. Specifically, the question in the referendum was “Do you agree that the Constitution of Canada should be renewed on the basis of the agreement reached on August 28, 1992?”
When I look at that, I see a much more compressed timeline than we had contemplated, a four-month timeline. I wanted to ask how you made that happen and whether such a feat could be replicated today.
The reason I ask this is that Mr. Mayrand has indicated it would require six months to organize and carry out a referendum, so is it possible to go below that, or were there circumstances in those days that made it different and made it possible to have a more compressed timeline in order to hold a referendum?