I have experience with both systems, because in 1988 the Alberta labour code switched from a card system to a secret ballot system. I was certainly of the view that to make that work it was essential to have very early votes, no more than 15 days from the application for certification. I carried that experience with me when we went through the federal review.
Remember, the federal jurisdiction, though it's not obvious from the income tax provision, is limited to what I call the trains and boats and planes jurisdiction. Your bargaining units are largely huge cross-national bargaining units, and the voting system is a very impractical, time-consuming process. Frankly, though I'm quite open to both systems, in the federal system, based on the consultations we had, it wasn't worth the candle. It wasn't giving you more democracy. It was giving you much more delay and much more cost, and it wasn't anything that the parties we consulted with—not only labour and management, but the public as well—saw as a major issue. Management was in favour, and we recognized that in the report.
I want to say one more thing about the vote system that hasn't been mentioned. We did make a very significant change to the Canada code. Certification is only one step. The major step with unions and management is the decision to take a strike or lockout, and in 1998 we introduced a mandatory strike vote. That vote has to happen before you have the major feature of industrial action. Nobody is talking about that, but that is the main check, that employees support the union in the crucial position they're taking. That was new and that has worked well.