Mr. Speaker, I would like to say briefly that the point made by the Reform Party whip is a good one. I too very much regret that we have to do what we are doing.
This would be a bad precedent if it in any way were to be understood as a precedent. I think this needs to be understood as an aberration. I think the point is well made that one could certainly imagine a future circumstance in which the leadership of all parties, in fact all parties, might conspire to overturn the will of five members who might not have been acting in concert with their parties, causing a vote to be taken by standing and forcing a recorded division.
This should in no way be seen as a precedent in respect of any future circumstance. In the future we would have to have guarantees, as we have today, that the members who caused the vote to be taken were in agreement with the procedure we are now following.