Thanks.
I didn't know if I was going to want to say anything today, but I'm here, and we're talking about Fridays, so I want to throw in my two cents.
In the two and a half years that we've been here, I've actually lived the no Fridays, because I've traded off virtually every single shift. Every House duty on Friday I have given away or traded, or done something to get rid of it, because I need to be back to my riding. Whether I get back at 10 o'clock at night or two o'clock on Friday morning, my staff has scheduled a whole day for constituents to come and see me, or for me to go and see them. It's the same with Saturdays.
I want to echo what Mr. Simms is saying. It's annoying when we keep hearing that we only want a four-day work week, because literally, my only day off is the day that I fly back to Ottawa on Sunday mornings. We came into this knowing full well that this is what the job is, but there's nothing wrong with trying to understand and trying to change. One hundred and fifty years ago somebody made up these rules, but they lived here. They had booths in the back of the House. This is what they did here. They didn't want to go home. They didn't pay attention to their ridings. Come on, let's call it for what it is.
Today we have a more educated constituent who, with social media, with all sorts of 24-hour news, is on top of the situation. Now, mix in alternative facts; mix in all sorts of crazy non-news. We have to be able to talk face to face with our constituents. If we don't, we lose an opportunity. Remember, I got into this whole race late. I own a coffee shop, and for five years I listened to people in my coffee shop. I was the barista, and I heard every single day what people said about our government, what people said about politicians. The reason I ran as a politician is I thought we could do something different. I thought I could do something different.
I'll tell you about one of the things that made me run. On the day of the shooting here, it was on the TV in the coffee shop, and a young gentleman walked in and said, “What's going on?” I said, “Well, there's apparently been a shooting on Parliament Hill.” He said, “Did any politicians get shot?” I said, “No, we haven't heard of anything like that.” He said, “Too bad. They should kill them.” He was a 17-year-old guy. I looked at him and asked, “Why would you even say that?”
What is it about politicians that conjures up that nastiness, that we're all corrupt, that we're all bad, that we're all pigs at the trough? That's not true. None of us around this table that I know of is like that, because we are generally here for a reason. I decided to run because I think in my riding I can change that belief. We are not like that, and as politicians we can contribute more to our ridings and our communities and our people. We can't do that if we're showing up on Saturdays. I'm not saying get rid of the Friday sittings. Whether it's a full day or whether it's no day or whether it's an extra week, that's the discussion to be had, but the reality is our constituents want to see us. If they don't see us, they're making up their own minds on what's going on: we send out our householders; we're spending money; we're wasting money out there.
We can do this better. There is a better way to do this, but in order to do that, we actually have to have a debate. When I look at the discussion paper, and I look at the filibuster, and I chair a committee, really, I don't want to listen to somebody talk for two hours about when he was a little boy and crossing the bridge, because that doesn't encourage anybody to try to solve a problem. It makes people tune out the words and ignore the person on the other side. With all we're doing, we're not even coming close.
I looked at the discussion paper, and it reads, “limited to 10 minutes”. You're not going to lose your filibuster, because you can come back and take your 10 minutes, but by your talking for 10 minutes, and then giving the floor to somebody else to talk for 10 minutes, what's happening? What I am watching over here is not what I expected, by the way. I thought one person was going to talk for five hours on end. I'm glad there is stuff happening going back and forth. That's how you start to solve problems. When you have healthy dialogue, it goes back and forth. If you can't do that because one person has the floor for two, three, four, five, or six hours, you'll never get to a consensus.
I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to say that. I don't want to take up any more time on that. These are the things we're talking about. It's not just us in this House, but it's how people view us. We need to bring integrity back to this House, back to what politicians should be, not what they are right now.
Thanks.