I'm just going to give you one more prayer.
I get down on my hands and knees because this is just a stabilizing reform—it's my last one, Mr. Chair—if you do change the electoral system.
I think most of the public here doesn't know what I'm going to say. We're virtually the only parliamentary democracy in the world that really has no rule about when Parliament should meet after an election. Think of that. Parliament must have a session once a year, but that means that after an election, when people ask when Parliament is going to meet, no one knows. That's particularly dangerous when no party has a majority, and the public, and indeed the international community, is asking, “Who is in charge in Canada?” Hell, we won't know until Parliament meets, because we must have a majority in Parliament. When is Parliament going to meet? “I don't know” is the response.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's the situation. Once, the country waited five months for a minority Prime Minister, Joe Clark, a wonderful Canadian. I'm not here to malign him.
This is the simplest thing. I've written about the reform in my book. It just requires an act of Parliament. There are models: New Zealand and Australia. One has a one-month rule; the other has an eight-week rule.