Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the 15-minute break. It was much appreciated.
I got reloaded here. I have a bowl of Bits and Bites and a fresh glass of water. I'm reloaded and refreshed.
I have a blizzard going on outside my window right now. There was a snowstorm here about 30 minutes ago—literally a blizzard. I don't know what's going on here.
I want to try to bring us back to where I was with respect to my thoughts.
Unlike MP Simms, who comes at it from the vantage point of having a more historic experience in Parliament, I'm coming at it with more of a recently elected background. It's the same frustration, but a little bit different at times.
With the massive experience that MP Scott Simms has, I couldn't carry his school books. He speaks with such candour and passion. He knows his stuff. That's why when he speaks—like I said earlier, there's a little ADHD flowing through my blood here—sometimes it's hard for me to pay attention. Anyway, Scott's speech was really, really good.
I'm trying to articulate a bit of a different vantage point with respect to MP Vecchio's motion and MP Turnbull's amendment to the motion, and trying to find a way forward here.
I've talked about comparing the different prorogations. Between former prime minister Harper and obviously what happened here with our government and Prime Minister Trudeau, they couldn't be more different. That's where I'm coming from.
I'm coming from two vantage points really. They're like night and day. It's like night and day what happened with former prime minister Harper and what we did, because we had to pivot. We were faced—we are faced—with one of the greatest health challenges of our time.
What we had to do was necessary. I know we talked about that, and I've talked about that, obviously for an hour and 30 minutes. I'm kind of done with the comparison of the two events. We all know that story.
We also all know, if we're being honest with ourselves, what priority this has with our constituents. As I said earlier, if I took a piece of paper outside and asked my constituents to list the top 30 or 50 things, prorogation and this study wouldn't make it. Canadians are seized with what's happening on a daily basis in their lives. We cannot turn on the television and not see another tragedy, another life that's been taken, another life that's been ruined. We see it every day, and it's not over.
We need to be vigilant. All of us in all parties need to stand together and do the right things for Canadians, because with variants now coming, we don't really know what the future holds. We need to be together.
That's why I think MP Turnbull's amendment to the motion is so critically important for us to consider. I would love to see a show of hands. We could vote on this now. Then we could move forward and do the business that Canadians want us to do.