The 21st century.
That's what Mr. de Burgh Graham said. Actually, I wish I'd been here to hear his intervention last week.
It's interesting when we see the suggestion about making electronic voting. I think it's important that we have members of Parliament in the House. We're doing it right around the clock and we're having votes. I think Ms. Sahota said that it was a good thing she didn't bring her family, because it would have interfered with her family time.
I understand what it's like to have your family nearby and get a vote called or whatever. But this is what we signed up for. I never want to take away somebody's family time. I think you heard earlier how passionate I am about my kids. I did things differently in my previous role. This job has allowed me, has afforded me, to be a better father, as a matter of fact. Regardless of whether I'm away from home or whatever, I think we know what we're getting ourselves into when we're doing it.
Getting back to the votes, electronic voting may be a way to modernize it, but there has to be a different way. I think you have to stand to be counted. I think members of Parliament have to be able to stand, on the record, whether they are for something or against it. That's what the electors want us to do.
One thing that my electors asked me on the doorstep was this: “If something's against your party policy, but we in Cariboo—Prince George feel very strongly for it, how will you vote?” You have to vote your conscience. You have to vote your electors. Ultimately, it's not me.
I want to bring you back to Bill C-14, which dealt with physician-assisted death. We spent a lot of time debating other things, considering the amount of time we spent on a piece of legislation that I feel is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation our Parliament would see. Do you want to know why? It was because closure was invoked on it, which I think is sad.
People asked me how I was going to vote. Regardless of my personal beliefs, I listened to my constituents.
I consulted a good friend of mine who is a minister, and I said that I didn't think there was enough time for me as an elected official, that I didn't think there was anything to prepare somebody to be able to really understand the magnitude of voting on something such as that. I was struggling with it, so I went to my minister and asked for guidance.
I heard from our constituents loud and clear, and it varied, but overwhelmingly I heard that.... When we're talking about invoking closure on important debates, I think it's important.... I don't know how many days we debated the question of changing the words to our national anthem. I think we debated that longer than physician-assisted death. To me, for fundamental pieces of legislation such as that, invoking closure on something because you don't like the way the conversation is going.... We heard on the other side that they were indeed twisted in how they were going to vote as well. We've seen that a number of times.
Mr. Chair, I can't talk about what we did as government, but we have seen that over the course of the last 18 or 16 months this government has invoked closure a lot of times because they didn't like the message they were hearing. They didn't like the fact they were getting, perhaps, even some opposing views within their own caucus. I think that is shameful.
We need to make sure that the voices of our electors are never silenced, that we have the ability to bring those forth. Whether we like the answer or not, I think that is important to do. There are things I may not always agree with on the other side, or even within our own caucus, but I listen and respect those views, recognizing that they are the constituents' views of the members. I do my very best to try to educate myself on why somebody feels that way, and I think that's important.
I read Ms. May's paper. As I said, I try to understand all points of view. I can honestly say that, while I may not always agree with Ms. May, there are some things that she says in here that really resonate with me. On electronic voting, she states, “For my part, as the leader of an unrecognized, but nationally engaged parliamentary party, I find the current voting system valuable in many ways.” I agree with this. It is important that members be physically present. Voting from our offices or our home ridings is not an acceptable option, and it is a dereliction of duty. I truly believe that. It opens it up for manipulation.
This is my saying this. I think what we need to do is to make sure that members of Parliament can't absolve themselves of the responsibility of voting. We must not make it easier for them to say, “I wasn't there, I didn't vote on it”, or “somebody else pressed the button”. Instead, stand and be counted. If you are truly there to represent your electors and your riding, find a way to get yourself to the Hill and vote, and be on the record for how you feel.
I want to go back to some of the comments that we've heard regarding the opposition. Again, I don't know the history, but has there ever been a time when the Conservatives and the NDP have co-authored a paper and signed it, and the leaders have stood together on something and had a unified voice? Probably not in the last 10 years, anyway.
This is what the government of the day has done. It's managed to actually unite, for the most part, the full opposition. We've got a letter here from last week written by the Honourable Candice Bergen, our opposition House leader, and Murray Rankin, the NDP House leader, talking about modernizing the House. It brought forth a 2001 motion to create the Special Committee on the Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons. I'm not going to go into this because I think it's been read to death. But what I'm going to say is that I think it's interesting that I see a lot of kind of grumpy people, angry at what the opposition is doing. They say, “Can you imagine the gall of the opposition to do all these different moves and manoeuvres, and shame on them”. Well, who started this, Mr. Chair? All you've done is galvanized us on this, which is great because for once the guns are pointed squarely across the way and not askew a little bit, because I see that sometimes too. I think it's important that it this on the record as well.
Mr. Chair, it's interesting when we go down the path that we've gotten to at this point. I'm sure every member of the government or the Liberal Party.... And it's all backbench; we don't see any ministers here. Of course, they're busy doing whatever they're doing. Far be it from them to come to talk about their ways, what they think would change or modernize the House. I know they're busy doing things. I'm being facetious. It has been the backbench folks, the newbies who have really been holding up the end for the government—and you, of course, Mr. Chair, who have been doing a great job. I think it is very commendable.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in your conversations behind closed doors. I really would. I'm sure it's not all roses, bouquets, rainbows, and unicorns, because I know that you've got some very strong, well-meaning, very smart, very capable members of Parliament who perhaps don't get a chance to say as much as they would like, or don't get a chance to be the voice of their ridings as much as they'd like. As a matter of fact, just before Christmas, there was a member of Parliament who stood up—and forgive me, because I don't know his name; I should know his name—and was heckling me, and I was looking across the way. It was the first words I think he had said in the House in the 14 months after being elected. I thought, “Is that the best you've got after being elected for 14 months?” It was the first time he was able to stand in the House and be on record. That's the point that we've said. I've stood up a number of times in the House to say—and I'm saying it over and over again here—that the 338 members of Parliament, incredible, strong, well meaning, capable, elected from all walks of life, bring differing points of view and perspectives to this House.
I'll use the Prime Minister's words against him here, that “Canadians know our country is made stronger because of our diversity, not in spite of it.” Does that ring true, that everyone around the table has a say because we come at it from different vantage points? We've probably got people who have been CEOs of major corporations. We've got scientists and microbiologists or marine biologists, and we've got people from all walks of life. We've got ministers. We've got an astronaut, for heaven sakes. So we've got people around the table who are from all walks of life, who bring us different points of view. Can't we come to some form of consensus or be trusted to sit around the table and come up with something or find ways of making things different and better?
It's interesting, too, Mr. Chair—