Firstly, on the issue of the thickness of my skin, it may be thin, but there are lots of layers directly underneath that are thick.
The comments I provided at the start, in terms of providing pie for everyone, were actually statements with which we agree. These are our allies. It very much is, as I was suggesting, a non-partisan bill, in that all parties supported this.
My references are to how all parties supported it, and I don't think there was a partisan tone to that at all. I think it was in fact in a non-partisan fashion that I was referring to those, to show the broad support for the principles that all parties had expressed and to which we are responding here—in fact, to the direction of this very committee in September, when they wanted to see action taken on this issue. So from that perspective, I have to respectfully disagree.
In terms of the issue of polling staff and gender, first of all, it's no different from the staffing that's provided, for example, at airport security, the requirements for staffing at customs borders, places where searches are required, or places where people are required to show their identification. It's the same kind of situation. I don't believe anybody has a problem with it in those other contexts. I don't know if the Bloc Québécois has a problem with it in that context, but it's the same thing. So I reject the notion that it's a problem.
In practical terms, the flexibility that is there for the Chief Electoral Officer—a flexibility that's already there in the act, but we've simply expressed an ability to obtain some more resources if need be—is, frankly, one that they can apply already.
In practical terms, I don't think it will be a big problem. We've been told that the places, the number of cases where we need to provide additional flexibility, in staffing terms, where people are going to be uncomfortable, where they're going to need some kind of special measures, are very, very few.
And in practical terms, there has never been, as far as I'm aware, a difficulty or shortage of women in terms of the proportion of staff involved in elections. At the polling stations, there are always a lot of women.
I think, in practical terms, the Chief Electoral Officer will find it very easy to make it work. It can work successfully. It should be no more disruptive, and in fact less disruptive, than what we see in terms of staffing of border crossings and the like, where a similar requirement or demand exists.