Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for highlighting the other components.
I guess it is worthwhile mentioning that the reason the other amendments, which are actually identical, are no longer able to be moved is that the NDP brought forward this amendment first. That's something for Canadians to be aware of: that there were other amendments that were put forward by other members of Parliament which said exactly the same thing as this amendment.
I don't know what else speaks to a consensus other than what just occurred. We're seeing there is agreement around the table that this is important and that we need to be moving forward on this.
I could not think of anything that would be a better gift for Canadians today, so close to Christmas and in the holiday season, than for them to have the reassurance that this part of the bill, which provides pensions to members of Parliament who would not otherwise receive them, would be removed. This is an issue I have brought up many times now.
For anybody who may be just beginning to pay attention to this meeting now, I want to reiterate that there's a part of the bill where moving the election date would actually end up benefiting the pensions of members of Parliament. This is not at all what I signed up for. This is not at all what the NDP wants to see happen through this bill. Therefore, immediately, I stood in the House of Commons to highlight this issue and to propose a solution.
Unfortunately, the response of the Conservatives has not been to look at the solutions but to try to burn down the entire bill. I'm happy that today we have support from everybody around this table to debate this important amendment to see that MP pensions are not what we are talking about. My hope is that, once we have voted on this and have what we expect would be support around this table, we will be able to truly talk about the issues at hand and move forward with a bill in which Canadians' best interests are put at the forefront, not Conservative slogans and fundraising efforts.
Again, the reason I bring forward this amendment is to see the portion that benefits MP pensions removed so that we can talk about the important content in this bill. I will make clear again that if we're going to talk about MP pensions, we need to do so in a transparent way and not tucked into a bill that is not at all about MP pensions.
I hope my colleagues will agree that this is a reasonable solution. I hope that the vote comes soon so that Canadians can have the reassurance they need and deserve and that we can talk about strengthening our electoral systems.
With that, Mr. Chair, I look forward to hearing my colleagues' stance on this particular amendment.