I will continue my comments to Mr. Blaikie.
Your proposal is not really an amendment. You want the Prime Minister to appear for an hour and you are saying that the rest of the motion is equally valid. But we actually feel that we have heard enough witnesses and that we have enough documentation to write a report. You said that we are acting in a partisan manner. You are right to talk about partisanship: regrettably, we are here because of the partisan games being played by members of the opposition.
In terms of the motion before the committee today, I strongly believe that the ability to advise the Governor General about prorogation is the prerogative of the Prime Minister. You actually said so yourself, Mr. Blaikie. That is also exactly what we were told by the officials from the Privy Council Office and by the academics who appeared before the committee. Some of those experts and scholars stated that prorogation is legitimate as long as the Prime Minister has the confidence of the House. That was the case for the prorogation in August 2020.
Everyone on this committee will recall that the vote on the Speech from the Throne was a confidence vote. They did not all vote in favour of the Speech from the Throne but the majority of members of the House did. This proves that the Prime Minister certainly had the confidence of the House. Three hundred and twenty-nine members of Parliament took part in that vote. Of that number, 177 members of Parliament voted in favour of the Speech from the Throne, thereby demonstrating their confidence in our government. A majority of members of Parliament voted in favour of this Speech from the Throne.
Does our NDP colleague not acknowledge that his party demonstrated its confidence in our government through that vote? All the members of his party voted in favour of the Speech from the Throne: the honourable members from Skeena—Bulkley Valley, Elmwood—Transcona, North Island—Powell River, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, Victoria, Vancouver Kingsway, Hamilton Mountain, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, Winnipeg Centre, Hamilton Centre, St. John's East, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, Courtenay—Alberni, New Westminster—Burnaby, Vancouver East, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, Windsor West, London—Fanshawe—