Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
Yes, as Karen Redman said, I feel very passionate about this issue. I've been working in this area of women in politics for 30 years. I started off 30 years ago when Eric was just a wee lad, working in his office, as the women's organizer for the NDP. We as a party have been working very hard ever since to try to reduce the barriers, and to deal with those at every level, and I think we're making some progress.
We've made progress at the candidate level, where we've agreed that there has to be a ceiling on what you can spend as a candidate, and we have put a ceiling on the donations you can take in, because that's the way to have a level playing field. Now we're trying to say we have to do this at the nomination level, whether it's a nomination for party leadership or a constituency.
We have a proposal here that appears to deal with one part of the problem, to put a limit on the loans. Eric, in your brief you actually mention that this helps to deal with a difficult problem and to level the playing field, particularly for women and other financially disadvantaged groups. So I'd like you to explain a bit about how you see this, and why. And then I'd like to ask the other party representatives if they agree that this bill will actually help remove barriers for women and help them enter politics.