The fact remains that the first step should have been that consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer. That didn't happen.
So you say to yourself, “Well, okay, maybe that was a mistake or an oversight, and I'm sure he would have sat down with one of the key stakeholder groups on the issue of democracy in Canada.” That's Fair Vote Canada. They're not exactly wild-eyed radicals. They care about the details of democracy. Did the minister meet with them? No, the minister didn't meet with them.
All right. Well, what about our concerns about the implications of some of these changes as they might affect our first nations people and other Canadians who live in the far north? Voting in the far north is very, very different from voting in downtown Toronto.
If I may, Chair, I know a little of this.... I'm sure you'll recall that I've been on six or seven international election observation missions. Sometimes I was out in the villages in some of those countries. I've seen first-hand the challenges they have. They're not unlike ours when you're remote, when you're further away. In many cases, they have other challenges, but it's surprising how similar they are.
There was no consideration. How many first nations leaders did they talk to? None. How many northern leaders? None. For other groups we're concerned about that will be disenfranchised, how many of their representative groups did the national minister meet with? None. Who did the minister meet with? Did the minister meet with anybody outside of the Conservative world? Not that we know of. Give me a break.
There is nothing fair or democratic about this process. This is an abuse of majority power. I remind this government that it's a majority of seats that came from less than 40% of the people who went out and voted. You would think they'd be a little more respectful of the fact that they have a majority, but they got it through the barest means possible, and in a way, that underscores our need to change our process. I was part of a government that got elected with less than 40% of the vote and has 100% of the power, and I'm saying it's unfair. I agree. How, in a democracy, can 40% of the vote give you 100% of the power? How can that be? Yet it is. So the very least we ask for on behalf of Canadians who care about this is just an opportunity to go and visit them where they live and where we think there are concerns.
Chair, it makes you wonder what it is the government is afraid of. Is it that their bills and their arguments hold up here, under the safe political security of the Ottawa bubble, because it's all just arguments and debate? Is that what they're worried about? Is that what they're afraid of, that if we go to the far north they'll be faced with a stark reality that puts the lie to their argument that this is not going to disenfranchise? Is that what they're afraid of? I don't know.
Are they afraid that there might be a demonstration or two, or that there might be a protest sign, or somebody who's upset with what's going on with the Senate, or somebody who's upset about robocalls, or somebody who's upset about the in-and-out scandal? There are a lot of democratic reasons for Canadians to be upset with this government. Might that happen? I don't know. Maybe, but so what? It's a free country. A couple of people with a placard making a minor demonstration outside the meeting room, it seems to me that's one of the good things about living in Canada: we have the right to express ourselves.
If there's a meeting going on and I, as a Canadian citizen, have something to say about that, and I want to stand outside with a little bit of a sign that says whatever I want it to say, in perfectly legal language, that makes a political statement, I remind colleagues that this is not a joke. Some of my friends have family from those countries where if you hold up that sign, it's the last time you're ever seen.
How far away from that are we when we have a government that refuses to hold a public meeting out in the community because they're afraid to face those signs? We're not that far away from it. We maybe didn't arrest the person who had the sign just because they had a sign, but just because they have a sign, we won't hold a meeting there.
Whether it's that the government is afraid that their arguments won't hold up when we actually go out into the communities where people live, that when we go to Downtown Eastside in Vancouver these members are faced with the stark reality and they feel they can't defend it then because it's too real, that it's not just arguments here in Ottawa, that it's—