Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I just want to jump in for a minute to respond to Mr. Badawey's comments. How we can move this forward is really a bit of a leap of faith, I think, for all parliamentarians. In other words, all of us have to shelve the idea that we can hold all the power and therefore be able to override the opinions of others. That would require the government to let go of that idea and to say, for purposes of this discussion, that it was willing to facilitate the discussion to get to the place of agreement, which we hope for in the end—and I have faith in that, if we can do that.
If the government can let go of that power and control and trust all parliamentarians to put in their best effort, to come forward with ideas of how to reform the parliamentary system in the interest of all Canadians, then I think we'll get somewhere—I really do.
The government is refusing to do that. We could go through an exercise in which, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what people say and what witnesses propose, because the government will just bring down the hammer and say, “This is the way we're going to do it, and that's just how it is.”
I think that would defeat everything that members hoped to achieve. I just think that would be so very unfortunate. Why don't we have a do-over in a way? Why don't we accept the idea of allowing people to have their contributions and to make everyone work harder to achieve results? That would mean that everybody needs to set aside fixed ideas, that power does not rest with one party but with all the people around the table, to come to an agreement. Then I think we'd get somewhere. Let's get on with it.
I think we all want to do it. If the government can do that, I think we can get somewhere. I just want to reiterate that point, because I think it's such an important one. I think if you did that, you would also send a strong message to Canadians on the whole who want to have faith in their politicians and in our system, showing them that there can be a better way forward.