I think we did bring it up, but maybe we had another one of those railroad things going on whereby they voted against us.
So here we are, not represented. Here I am. I know I'm just a small guy, literally. We are not represented on this committee. I know it's hard for me to be invisible. I know it's tough. But what am I? I'm hard to hide.
I think there is an injustice in this place. I think this committee didn't think it through, that we could be well on to doing things that we could be a lot prouder of. We could really, truly be there if we had just fixed that flaw in the steering committee way back then.
Am I saying it would have made a difference in this case? I don't know. It would still only have been one government member against the world. I could break into song there, I guess, but it would still only be that. But at least I would have felt we had a say. I would have thought we had a way forward. I could hold my head up and say that democracy prevailed, we were there, I was right, I made my case, however the schedule went this way. But we don't even get that. We don't even get the chance to be there.
Something is wrong with this, Chair. Something is really wrong when the steering committee is only allowed to look at one piece and say that's what they want, to grab the bit in their teeth and just run with it and that's what they want and that's what they're going to do, come hell or high water. If you don't mind an old saying, Chair, that's what we're going to work on. I've got to tell you, here we are, and it doesn't feel like high water, Chair.
We've just got one topic we're going to deal with. That's what they're saying to us. Only one thing matters to us. The people of Canada be damned; there's only one thing we're going to talk about and that is the topic we're here to talk about today, the motion that's been put forward that this steering committee will only look at Ms. Redman's motion and it will take priority over the other work of the committee.
If indeed we were working on legislation, I could almost live with that last sentence. Working on legislation will take priority over all the work of the committee. I think if the steering committee had come forward and said that, I might even have said that's all right. If we're working on legislation, that could take priority over the other work.
But it didn't say that. It didn't say we'd work on Bill C-6, the piece of legislation that's before us. It didn't talk about the performance report of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer that's before this committee that needs to be looked at, at some point. It's another piece of work for this committee. Did they say we should work on that? No.
It says that this motion, this witch hunt, as Mr. Lukiwski talked about last week, this unfairness that this committee should investigate the actions.... Not look at, not determine, not decide whether there is a piece of election financing that needs to be changed, as is truly the purview of this committee, to look at regulations that have to do with elections.... No, let's investigate a party.
And not all of them. No, Chair. I know you're surprised. You have a surprised look on your face. Not four parties, not look at all parties, not even look at maybe five, six, seven parties. There are other parties out there besides the four represented in this House. Don't look at them all. Don't look at how other people have done elections--no, no, no. Let's just drill down to only one thing. Let's only look at one thing.
I know it's unbelievable. It's the action of bullies in the schoolyard. It's exactly that. It's saying we're only going to do one thing, and we're going to gang up and make sure it happens whether you want it to or not. It's a sad commentary on this place. It truly is.
The word “partisan” comes up in our vocabulary here--