Thank you. You've covered a lot of ground.
On the last point, I think the agreements hang together as a whole entity. This was also what Prime Minister Mulroney said about the Charlottetown Accord, which had eight fundamental different areas, from developing aboriginal self-government and so on...that the constitutional package was itself a compromise and you couldn't cherry pick among the parts. It's like when we had to vote in Parliament; it was the whole package, or not.
That is not to say there isn't thoughtful discussion going into the run-up to the voting. A lot of education does happen in that process. People do become more aware of the five or the eight component parts in coming to their ultimate conclusion.
As an aside, one of the very important things about a referendum process is not just about the ballots that are counted on the voting night; it's equally about the education process that goes on during the campaign period, which is when citizens become seized of an issue and the outcome. Any government in office is then going to be operating in a policy field with an electorate that's better informed about the issue.
With respect to the thresholds, obviously the committee is already well served to address that issue. I was despairing in answering your colleague about what you do in a democracy. When I was in Iraq working on the inaugural elections and advising on the constitution, it was a dangerous place to be. On the first day I was in Baghdad, three election officials were pulled out of their vehicle in front of the election office and murdered in the street.
But I met a young woman who came up to me and said, “I am going to vote. If they kill me...I am going to vote.” I think about that attitude and determination from people who have lived under a repressive regime, and I sometimes wonder about the complacency of the expectation in this country that what we have so richly will be here indefinitely.
On your point about whether it was the War Measures Act or the legislation following 9/11, when civil liberties were curtailed in this country, a government will always invoke the urgency and the need to act today. But as we always see, whether it was in the long aftermath of the invocation of the War Measures Act at the time of the kidnappings in Quebec or it was in the long aftermath of September 11, 2001, there is ample time for the citizens to be involved in a consultation.