I'll say this. In that instance, the NDP member who was asked the question was the vice-chair of a committee, and often in this House we don't know what goes on in committees and what's happening there, and that information was shared for all members of the House about what was going on at that committee. In fact, the answer was useful to me, and I suspect it was useful to other members as well, and it wasn't a message-box answer, unlike what the government consistently does.
Just think about this for a minute. If Mr. Simms takes offence to that one question the NDP member answered, imagine in every single question period since I've been here, and since I suppose the beginning of time maybe, what that is like for all the Liberal members who get up to ask those lobbed questions repeatedly. Just imagine what that's like. If we're going to talk about reform, maybe there's a way to reform that. That would be a useful conversation.
I also want to make a comment about question period preparation. I get what Ms. May is saying in terms of preparation and all of that. I would venture to say this. In preparing for question period, I think it is important to prepare from this point of view: that you need to be thoughtful about what you're going to ask and how you're going to ask those questions, and you need to make it within the 30-second rule. I actually write all my questions, and I have to time them to make sure they fit into those 30 seconds; otherwise, I get cut off.
In the provincial legislature, there is some leeway. You don't abuse your time and get up and drone on for days with questions; you sort of ask your question within a time frame. If you go over by five or 10 seconds, the Speaker will allow you to finish, but you don't get cut off. Here, you actually get cut off, and you might have just needed three seconds to finish what you were saying, and you don't get that. I live in fear that I'm going to get cut off, to be honest with you. For that purpose, I have to practise it to time it to make sure I don't get cut off.
Sometimes we do go off script and that's how it goes as well. However, in terms of reforming question period, I would certainly welcome the opportunity to take a look at how we do that.
Lastly, Mr. Chair, I want to mention asking a question in French. I want to acknowledge that I'm not a bilingual speaker. I don't speak French fluently. I have grade 11 French, and I'm trying to polish it, and hopefully I'm getting there, but I'll say it is important to ask a question in French, because you need to acknowledge the bilingual speakers.
I have constituents who say to me that they need information in French, and so I work really hard. For example, on my website I translate my material so that people can have that information in French. I think we need to acknowledge the importance of bilingualism in this country.