Mr. Speaker, through you to the member, I did not want the member to think that I was all of a sudden becoming impersonal.
I believe that one of the unique qualities of the member for Beaver River is the fact that the member has always had the courage to go against the wind. I want to pick up from the member's speech where she talked about the Charlottetown accord and tried to bring the relevance of the Charlottetown accord experience to this recall debate.
I was elected in 1988 for a very specific reason in downtown Toronto. I ran opposing the Meech Lake accord. I believe in a strong national government. I was ideologically supportive of the Pierre Trudeau vision of this country and I still am. I was given the trust in 1988 by the people of Broadview-Greenwood, which had been an NDP riding for 25 years, because I took a very specific stand on that important constitutional issue. I also thank John Turner for his terrific debating skills. That was the other great reason I believe that I won.
Two years ago, when we had the Charlottetown accord, I was sitting in this House of Commons with a position on the Constitution, a strong national government. If I were to maintain the trust of my electorate, and the member for Beaver River always says listen to your electors, I had to sit in this House in opposition and I did not support the Charlottetown accord. I sat here and I did not support my party's position. It was a very painful experience.
I then went into my riding and I campaigned on the beliefs that I had. My beliefs were personally that I did not believe in dismantling or decentralizing this national government any more than it had already been dismantled. I campaigned, not vigorously, but I campaigned. I was not trying to get into a confrontation with my leader or my party colleagues. It was just something that I had been given a trust on in 1988 and I had to m maintain it.
During discussion of the Charlottetown accord I put my position forward. A majority of my constituents at that time did not share my view of the Constitution. Every night I gave my reasons. Our office was open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for that period of time. It cannot be said that I hid behind the curtain or anything like that. People knew.
Because of the incredible thrust of advertising and because of the media, we were gobbled up by the big hustle on the Charlottetown accord. During that campaign period many people in the community went along with the pack. Those of us in my own community at the time of the election who did not share the view lost by 2 per cent.
I could have been at that moment in time, because of the Charlottetown accord, a victim of a recall action. My constituents could have initiated a recall action. They would have had the basis for getting a recall motion going.
It is important that we debate the issue, but the real test of our accountability does not come in the short term. It comes with our four-year actions in the House. That is when we get our recall test.