I come equipped with my own earpieces. I blame it on rock and roll music in my youth, but that's a topic for another day, or maybe it's a topic for this day.
Now that hearing has been brought up at the committee, we could talk a bit about that. I'm not certain we're hearing Canadians or the constituents back home. I'm not sure that any of them are yelling, “Could you please go to Ottawa and go on a witch hunt?” I've been home, and I don't think they've said that. I read my newspapers, even from here, and I don't think anybody in the riding is saying, “Please go to Ottawa and join in that witch hunt that's happening in the procedure and House affairs committee.” Nobody is saying that; nobody, I tell you. I haven't heard it once.
We may think this is important, and I can only assume that the opposition members believe that's the case, because otherwise why would they do this?
I've not heard from one member of the general public that we should look at this election spending thing. They want us to fix it. If it's broken, fix it. If it's not, then leave it alone and get on with your work and get the other stuff done. That's what we are sent here to do. We're actually sent here to work on legislation.
Now, did the steering committee say that? Let me read the report. It doesn't say anything about legislation anywhere in this report. Did you want me to read it out loud, Chair? I could read it, but the answer is no, they didn't say let's look at legislation.
They had to have discussed the legislation that is before this committee. They had to have discussed it at the steering committee. I know the steering committee is held in camera and therefore can't be.... I wasn't there, so I think I can talk about it. I recognize that perhaps the members who were there can't talk about it, because it's held in camera, but they had to have discussed the legislation. I can't believe the incompetence of the steering committee would be such that they would not talk about the legislation before this committee.
Can you believe it, Chair? You might have been there, so I know you can't say, and I know you have no voice at the committee either. You can't say before, during, or after.... But I assume legislation was talked about. I can't believe the steering committee would have sat there and said, “You know, we have Bill C-6 still. We should...”.
How could you sit at the steering committee for procedure and House affairs and say, “We have a piece of legislation that's important in this country. It is so important it has come back to this committee a couple of times to make sure that the Chief Electoral Officer gets it.” But it came back here. Do you know what they must have said at steering committee? They must have said it doesn't matter.