The member across says I do not understand democracy. Maybe that is so. Maybe he is much more knowledgeable in such things than I. For 18 years I have had the opportunity of serving those who have elected me at the municipal, provincial and federal levels of government. But perhaps the member across has learned a lot more in the time he has been here. Perhaps that is so. I will defer of course to that wisdom, the kind of wisdom we have just heard in the speech he delivered to this House. I will let my colleagues decide on just how much wisdom was heard in the previous 10 minutes.
The member across has just said with this Bill C-33 that democracy is stifled by the government, or something to that effect. I am not going to refer to people who are presently here in Ottawa because I cannot refer to anyone who would be in the gallery. That would be improper. I want the people who are here in Ottawa to know that I feel that the 21 years they have waited is more than long enough.
For members who say this bill was not debated sufficiently, last week we had an all night debate in committee, 16 hours straight of debating this bill in committee. Prior to that we had a second reading debate on this bill. Then we had an additional four hours of debate by the committee dealing with it and now another hour at report stage to be followed tomorrow by another hour at third reading.
Perhaps members think that individual bills should all be dealt with with more than 22 hours of debating time each. That is their privilege. That is more than an hour for every year that the people who are here in Ottawa have waited for this bill, not those in the gallery because I cannot refer to the gallery, but if I could I would.
I was at the committee last week for a good part of the time. I took three or four hours off and then came back. I saw people like the hon. member for Yukon who stayed there all night. The hon. member who is the chairman of the committee stayed their all night to defend the interests of constituents.