moved for leave to introduce Bill C-210, an act to provide for the recall of members of the House of Commons.
Madam Speaker, I would like to table this. I appreciate the chance to introduce today a bill to provide for the recall of members of the House of Commons.
This bill would allow the electors in any federal constituency to recall their member of Parliament by circulating a petition containing the names and addresses of a majority of the voters who voted in that riding in the previous election. If a recall petition were to be deemed successful by the chief electoral officer a by-election would be called for that seat.
The bill also contains a number of limitations on the recall process designed to avoid superfluous and mischievous employment of this device.
I believe this bill would do more to ensure democratic parliamentary reform than any other single measure. I recommend that the government support this bill as quickly as possible. As the late Senator Stan Waters who said regularly:
"Democracy delayed is democracy denied". I hope we act on this quickly.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)