Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 4th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Scott, on another point of order.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

No, it's on the same point of order, if that's possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay, sure. We'll number them from now on.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I just wanted to say that you may want to go back to your concern that this has been mentioned before. I don't remember it today though. But the question of proportional representation goes to creating a House of Commons with more of a cooperative ethic. The whole point is that a bill like this would not have gotten here without a different kind of process. What we're trying to do is recreate that process by going out to Canadians.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'll come to that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I understand your thoughts on the bill, but we're still on Mr. Christopherson's motion.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Keep in mind that what we're doing here is seeking to create a more cooperative production of a bill through a process. That's the connection I think he's trying to make.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I understand, but I bet Fair Vote Canada is in the phone book and having him read the phone book would not be relevant.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Really, I can't read the phone book? Now what am I going to do?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I did not mean to give you any ideas.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

If it was the Ontario phone book, would that help? You're an Ontario MP.

If I may, I'll just wrap up that part of my thinking on this now.

I'll just mention one more, Chair, and then I'll shift gears again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We'll all put our seat belts on and be ready.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I have no doubt.

I was saying that we want to have experts in the field of human rights and of election laws, and I mentioned some of the groups that are focused on that, which we would want to call. Again, as I mentioned with the students and other groups, there's not a uniform position held by everyone. They have differences of opinion in terms of different questions that are before us. That's all healthy. It complicates things and slows things down, but it's healthy, because it's another opinion. All opinions, especially on this bill, are equal and valid and important.

We would probably be looking at bringing in a group like ACORN, which is an independent national organization of low- and moderate-income families with almost 60,000 members in over 20 neighbourhoods and chapters across eight cities. I have just one sentence, Chair, and then I'm done with this. They state, “We believe that social and economic justice can best be achieved with a national active membership who are invested in their organization and focused on building power for change.”

Again, that would be the kind of group we would want to hear from to give us expert citizen opinion and input into what is arguably one of the most important pieces of legislation that any of us will be privileged to have a say on.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, and I'll just say right off the top that this is probably not a legitimate point of order, but I say this primarily for the benefit of David, if you or members wish to suspend for five minutes just for a quick health break, that's fine.

I'm just saying that because, David, I know on a couple of occasions, you have—

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'm good. That's very respectful. Thank you.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

If it gets to a point where anybody needs to use the facilities, we're fine with that, as long as it's a suspension and only for a short period of time.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Great. Excellent. There's 12 hours there. Okay. Thanks.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

It's all depends.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

We shall see what we shall see.

[An hon. member]

Depends....

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

They're distracting me, Chair, from staying focused on the things that you want me to stay focused on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I know they did that, yes.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I said to you that I would shift gears, and I'll do that just to try to keep it as fascinating as it has been.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Yes, it has been.