Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about a topic that has been very close to my heart for a very long time.
Just looking at it historically, in 1985, when I was first elected, our government started a special committee on the renewal of Parliament. I asked the prime minister if I could be part of that committee, so I was named. It didn't take very long, in a short meeting with the chair of the committee, James McGrath, to realize that when people talk about renewing Parliament and making changes to Parliament, there is an incredible kind of momentum that drags it back to where it has always been.
In 1985 I wanted to look at two things. The first was to look at electronic voting. The second was to look at improving the House of Commons, looking particularly at question period, which, as you know, has been and is a show that takes away from committees, where a lot of you do some magnificent work.
Having said that, I'm in Charlottetown today. I could not participate in this meeting were it not for Zoom. I think that speaks for itself.
The three other panellists have made the case for why we need to have a hybrid Parliament. I want to make the case simply to say that there are lots of safeguards built into this. I mean, there are whips in our caucuses. There is the electorate. There is the Speaker. I think we currently have an incredible ability, as your Speaker said, to deal with honourable members. When honourable members don't act honourably, someone else usually takes that into consideration, and that is usually the electorate.
By the way, the association of former members of Parliament and senators is an association to which all of you will one day belong. I just want to hope for you that you belong to our association at a time of your own choosing. We have a lot of members of our association who did not choose to be ex-members of Parliament, but they are.
I will close with this one offer. Former members have time on their hands. They have expertise. They care a lot about democracy and they care a lot about Parliament. Our association would be pleased to put together a special committee of members, of all political stripes and ideas, to look at the renewal of Parliament. Parliament's renewal is a complex thing. A hybrid Parliament is one aspect of it. I think there is very strong agreement to continue a hybrid Parliament, but there are a lot of other things that could be done.
Simply put, if you ask former members of Parliament, who care a lot, if we want to help, the answer is “yes”. We care, and we will help.