Thank you very much, Mr. Naqvi. I think that you're absolutely right: It was unfortunate that it was voted against.
The support for brain research is absolutely critical for a wide array of neurological conditions. When you meet patients, one of the hardest things.... Meeting patients who know that research is so close to giving them the answers to get back their lives and to be lifted out of the pain they're in or the condition they may have are the types of things that stay with you afterwards, long into the night, and they so desperately want us to make these investments. I would suggest that it's an area where we really could put down the partisan swords.
I think I mentioned another one, which is Bill C-72, on the interoperability of data. Again, I'm not aware of any opposition to these things, and yet they're not supported because there seems to be a view that being against everything is the job of an official opposition. I just don't agree with that.
I did spend two terms in opposition, where you try to advocate in favour of solutions and ideas, and I think that Parliament, in this minority government, got a ton done, and yes, on research. We are in a time of miracles, and we need to press just a little further so that the people who are afflicted with diseases and conditions can be elevated and live their best lives.
It's a roll of the dice. It could happen to any one of us. I think all of us would hope that if one of the people we loved or we ourselves had a condition visited upon us, we had a country that was doing everything it could to find solutions and invest in the science, the data and the evidence to find answers.