Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I hope this isn't trite, but there was a mayor in Toronto who always used to use the expression “If it ain't broke, why fix it?”
He was probably one of the most popular mayors because he didn't base his approach on the fundamentalist assertion that we equate the service and the rule simply on the basis of numbers. We base it on our willingness to get to the truth and to have good representation. That principle worked extremely well for this committee during the last session.
Mr. Chairman, I'll remind you that when we got to a point where issues were very complex, we actually passed motions by consensus giving additional opportunities out of sequence for members to ask questions. It was never denied, and it worked very well.
There are some issues that are implicit in representative government. One is that in a minority government, there is an opposition and there's a government. It is much easier for the government to stay together, and for whatever motive you apply to the opposition, the opposition is several entities. The tactic of dividing and conquering at specific times is just that, a tactic. It's not a strategy, thank God. Tactics win battles, but strategies win wars.
We could commence with the way we approached it last sitting. We had the same discussion, and there were those who put forward suggestions on the basis of representation just as have been put forward now.
Mr. Chairman, in order for us to get on with things, why not try it by consensus? We can always come back and change the order if it isn't working, or if we feel it isn't reasonable based on the way we want to represent in front of our witnesses and extract from our witnesses. Let's try, and hopefully it will be as successful as it was last term under your chairmanship.