Madam Speaker, I find the hon. member's comments very enlightening of the Liberals' position. It reminds me of what took place in British Columbia just before and during the Charlottetown accord. At that time the NDP government in British Columbia decided in its wisdom to promote the idea of Senate reform based on gender equality. It decided that if we were going to reform the Senate and make it elected, it would legislate an equal number of men and women senators. However it very quickly found out the people of British Columbia did not support that type of action.
Interestingly enough, one of the sitting women senators was the most outspoken against that. She found it personally demeaning that a government would consider legislating-