Thank you.
Three million, four cities. We have 35 million. We're going to none.
It seems to me that in New Zealand they've got a better idea of what real democracy is, rather than the rhetorical speeches of the Government in Canada. They went to those places to hear from those people who wanted to present their submissions in person. Did they have an armed revolution to get that much democracy? No. It just evolved. It's just goodwill. Goodwill. We've got to get some of that.
Drawing on the information material presented in the submissions and the advice received, the commission developed a number of proposals.
Let's get this straight. The Government of New Zealand, like Canada, was looking at amending its election laws. We have a government that brought in a bill that did not consult with anybody, including Elections Canada. I still can't believe I say that statement and it's true. It just blows me away that the government wouldn't have covered that off some way, and leave it so blatant, but they did.
So they had their commission do the first report. Then they released a proposal paper. That's not that far from what we did, Chair, if you recall. I need to make this point, but somebody took that book. There it is. I knew it was handy. I'm looking forward to that paperless day too, Mr. Chair. They released a proposal paper on August 13, 2012, and then they invited the public to again comment on the proposal.
We had it a bit like that back when were in minority, before we were living under this circumstance, this regime, and they brought forward proposals and we met as a committee and dealt with them. In New Zealand they actually are the lead on the whole process. They came out with these proposals, after consultation released a proposal paper. Then guess what they did? You won't believe the insanity of what they did then. You won't believe it. More consultation. Where does it end there? It never ends. They asked for more input after they already asked for input the first time around. Remember, we're not even at the bill yet. This is just the consultation process. Talk about respecting your own citizens. Talk about respecting democracy. Talk about actually caring about whether we have a bill that we can be proud of or whether we pretend we're some kind of third-rate banana republic. That's impressive. That's very impressive. It's also new, I should mention.
I wonder what they do in some of the other G-7 countries in terms of electoral.... It would be interesting to know what they do in other countries for the electoral process.
Moving on. Moving, moving, moving. We've got so much more to go here. It's worth at least mentioning, because my leader has mentioned this, that the Senate travelled 25 times. Committees travelled 25 times.