Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my fellow member from Saskatchewan, the hon. member for The Battlefords-Meadow Lake. I agreed with the majority of the hon. member's comments.
He began by saying that he felt in Canadians' eyes that this was perhaps a low priority issue given the state of our economy and concerns over employment. I would add to that concerns over high deficits and high taxes. However, because of the self-interests of politicians, he and I both recognize the issue has come to the floor of the House of Commons.
I also heard him say he would oppose the proposal based on the principle that it was a matter of interference where interference was not required. I concur with his observation in that regard.
The hon. member talked about the fact that if we capped or reduced the number of seats in the House of Commons, Saskatchewan would have fewer seats than its current 14. I think the hon. member and I are approximately the same age; I am not sure who is older. However, when I was young the province had about 21 seats if I remember accurately. Now we are down to 14 seats and I expect, unless there are some constitutional changes, that floor will remain.
I am not sure what the number of seats in Ontario was at the time when we had 21 seats, but I know it was less than the 99 it now enjoys and we know it is now going up to 103 under the new proposal.
If we do nothing Saskatchewan will remain at 14. Ontario may increase its seats to 115 or 120 if we look far enough down the road. Saskatchewan is losing clout no matter which way we look at it as far as the number of seats in the House of Commons is concerned.
The member correctly reflected on the solution, which was Senate reform. I was pleased to hear the hon. member say that, because I thought members of the federal New Democratic Party were supportive of abolition of the Senate. I know that provin-
cial members, particularly western spokespersons for his party, have supported the triple E concept.
I wonder if the hon. member is supporting the triple E concept of Senate reform, one that is not abolished but rather is reformed so that it is elected, has equal representation from every province, and maintains the effective powers that would give clout to provinces such as Saskatchewan which, no matter what way we look at it, is going to lose clout in the House under the current scenario or under the past scenario whether we are looking at new legislation or the status quo.