—and The Globe and Mail, saying, “Holy smokes, we're sorry. We didn't get it, but now we do”, and the Star is going to have to grovel even more—isn't it?—because they're buddies, oftentimes, and they said some pretty harsh things. Once Mr. Graham explains to it the wrongness of its perspective and how it is wrongly labelling the government anti-democratic, it too, maybe even in a special edition to curry favour back, with a front-page retraction of its editorial, will begin to realize, once it uses the decoder that Mr. Graham is going to give us, that actually this discussion paper is the greatest positive contribution to Canadian Parliament since we were blessed with the first Trudeau.
That must be it. That would make sense. They're doing it because they really are being democratic, and honouring their commitments, and respecting the opposition. We are just being so pigheaded and stubborn that we're refusing to accept that that's what's really going on.
Get ready, Globe and Mail editorial board. Alert! The same goes for the Toronto Star editorial board: emergency meeting, live stream!
Mr. Coyne, whatever you're doing, stop! Get hooked up!
Chantal, John Ivison, everybody, freeze! We've all been wrong. It's sad to say. It's hard to say you're wrong, but it would seem we are. We must be and I so look forward to relinquishing the floor. It's palpable. Mr. Graham is single-handedly going to use his secret decoder ring to interpret the discussion paper that we all wrongly thought was bad news for democracy. We're going to find out, like parents talking to children. We're going to be told what's real and we're going to be told how this is good for us.
My only regret is that we didn't let Mr. Graham speak earlier, but I'm sure that will be the beginning of the speech from Mr. Reid, who speaks after Mr. Graham. I feel sorry for Mr. Reid, who is one of the most talented members of this place, because, silly us, we entrenched ourselves in opposition to the document on this silly notion that it was bad for democracy. Poor Mr. Reid, because he's the guy who's going to have to 'fess all that up, because I got to do all the wind-up stuff last night, today, and a little bit last week. I got to do all the fun stuff, except as it turns out, as we're about to hear, I was probably misguided, as misguided as The Globe and Mail editorial board, the Toronto Star editorial board, Mr. Coyne, Madame Hébert, John Ivison, Lawrence Martin—all of us. We all got it so wrong and we are so lucky that we live in an era where “sunny ways” is the guiding phrase for us all, along with transparency and accountability.
He can't save you. I'm sorry, David. I see David looking at the Chair. He's almost imploring him, “can you not do something?” That's the thing of this. This is why you need to stop it, because you don't have to put up with this kind of abuse. You shouldn't have to put up with me saying these things to you. You're a Liberal. You're a member of the Liberal government. Who do I think I am talking to you that way? You're so right. Ah, the nerve. It's getting downright uppity and where's the House leader to put me in my place to say, you're getting a bit uppity there, Dave? That's the Liberal government. Where's your respect?