Yes—dumb it up.
Everybody was enjoined to never waver from the two key messages. One, this legislation is a precautionary measure. That number one message about the 1992 Referendum Act from the Government of Canada, that it was a precautionary measure, tells you all you need to know about the political culture of our national capital.
Joe Clark, who was a former Prime Minister and who was carrying this file, did not want a referendum. He said that if we have a national consensus we would not need a referendum, and if we don't have a national consensus we wouldn't want a referendum.
Out of his own words comes the most precise statement you'll ever get as to the political culture of Ottawa, which is at best that we'll tolerate the people's elected representatives, their inconvenient questions, and their scrutinizing of public spending, but it will be a long day in the minds of the senior mandarins and those who advise the ministers, the Joe Clarks of the world, the Lowell Murrays, who spent three years frittering away time while the Meech Lake Accord went down to defeat, instead of holding a referendum on it shortly after the premiers had all signed it.
That's the culture you're operating in. So that's why it's very important that this mandate really focus on the citizens and your role in representing them, I submit.