At any rate, it certainly gives me an opportunity to brag about my constituency. I also have to say that we have an extremely well informed electorate there as is evidenced by the fact that I am here today. It was given a choice. We presented the constituency with six candidates to choose from and I was the fortunate person to come here and share this experience with the House.
As far as postponing the process, I have in my constituency many people saying that they would like to present briefs to this panel and have their views heard as to what they plan to do as far as the constituency and what they would like to see done. I am really at a loss as to what to tell these people. I tell them that we would really like to see this bill die in the House but that we do not think there is any danger of that. We have to recognize the simple mathematics that the people who introduced the bill certainly hold sway over the result of the bill.
As a result of that I have people in my constituency looking to me and asking what to do. Apparently there is very little they can do. Maybe what they should be doing is preparing their brief now for what will take place in maybe a year or two from now.
We talk about the difficulty of trying to represent a rural riding. I have never had the opportunity to try and serve an urban riding but I would assume that the transportation problem, the physical problem of trying to get around the constituency is somewhat less of a burden. It would seem to me that whatever formula the committee ultimately comes up with must take into consideration the actual physical territory that the member has to cover. Surely it is not just the plains that have this difficulty. I know my neighbours to the west in British Columbia have large tracts of terrain they have to cover.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite you to my constituency. I would be pleased to introduce you at our annual stampede and rodeo, and that goes for all members of the House. It is an event that is second only to the Calgary Stampede as far as being an excellent show. I am a little prejudiced but I think that you are a little closer to the action at our show. I believe the Speaker has actually been to the Ponoka Stampede and I would very much like to invite all members of the House to come and join us on the July 1 long weekend.