Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
This is a very interesting debate because what is happening here is we are seeing the result of some of the policies that have been espoused particularly by the Reform Party but by many people in different parts of Canada in relationship to governing by referenda. You should never ask a question if you are not prepared to live with the answer.
I would not presume at any time to tell the people of Newfoundland and Labrador how they should particularly run their education system. Of course as parliamentarians and Canadians we are concerned about the quality of education from sea to sea to sea, and clearly quality is an issue that we would all be concerned about. But what we are seeing here is governance, an issue of governance.
I was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 1987 and I was appointed as vice-chair of the select committee on education. It is a little like deja vu all over again. It seems that no matter what jurisdiction I wind up in, education seems to become the focus of the day. It is very much a political issue.
I remember the concern that too often we are pulling up the roots of the tree of the education system and examining it, not leaving it planted, allowing it to grow. That had very much to do with the pedagogy, with the quality of education in the classroom, but a great deal less with the governance.
The people of Newfoundland have answered a question and I was fascinated to hear the member for one of the ridings in Saskatchewan say that he would not want to go back with a 70-plus vote in favour of one system in his province and tell a certain minority that it could no longer send its children to the schools of their choice. The result would be that the decision based on the referendum that would have hypothetically taken place in Saskatchewan would have to be ignored. This is clearly one of the problems we have when we think we can simply, in black and white, govern by referendum.
I recall a marvellous speech given by a member of the Ontario legislature. It was around an education system. He was from the riding of Simcoe. I will not mention his name, for his own purposes. He stood up and said I have done a poll in my riding on this particular issue and 50% of my constituents are in favour of this amendment and 50% are against, and I am going to vote with my constituents. Interesting comment.
That is the push-pull. That is why we were sent here. I suggest it is a very unusual issue where you can get a kind of clear answer to a question. We have to ask ourselves was the question legitimate.
I have heard the question read in this place and it is pretty legitimate and pretty clear and pretty understandable. Something impresses me even more than the 73%. I hear everyone saying that maybe they voted out of fear, maybe they voted because they did not understand it. There was a low voter turnout, all of this. Let us set aside the issue of the referendum just for a moment.
Although I would agree with my colleagues who have spoken from Newfoundland and Labrador very passionately about this, I would agree it is something they must listen to. The numbers that impress me the most are the ones when I look at how the legislature voted in Newfoundland. There are 48 members. Thirty-five of them are Liberals, obviously a clear majority. Eleven are Progressive Conservative, one NDP and one Independent.
I served for five years in a provincial legislature in opposition. Members from the opposition would understand what I am talking about when we can say we can vote against the government on this and it will still carry. God forbid that there would ever be a vote cast in this place with that kind of thought, but if it is a matter of political expediency, we can stand against the government and it will still happen. It has a clear majority.
Did the Tories do that? Eleven of them voted unanimously with the government. Did the New Democrats do that? Obviously a party with a tradition in opposition in this country that understands what it means to oppose and quite often just gets up in an opposing mood, it voted to support this. And the Independent? I do not know the person. We have one in this place. It seems that someone who is truly independent, who is elected as an independent, who would be sent to a legislature as an independent member, would find very little reason, in my submission, to generally vote with a majority government.
It seems to me that they would want to put forward the opposing view, that they would see it as an obligation to stand in contrast to the majority view of the government. Did that independent member in the Newfoundland legislature do that? That member voted with the government.
The fact that the duly elected representatives of that legislature voted 100% in support of this tells me something that very clearly is important. The debate took place. We know there was a royal commission. In 1992 the royal commission recommended this.
Newfoundland is a wonderful part of our land in this great country. One of the real advantages Newfoundland has, I would submit, is that in spite of the vastness geographically, it is probably possible to talk to everybody in the province.
I represent a riding of 140,000 people. By the time the next election rolls around, 50% of my constituents could be brand new to the riding. It is a very fast growing, volatile changing community. I would say, having spent some wonderful time in St. John's, Newfoundland, that it is easy to communicate if you represent that part of the country. You could probably, if you really wanted to and I say this with tremendous love for Newfoundland and Labrador, call everybody in a reasonable period of time and get hold of them. There would be an opportunity for people to voice their opinion.
With 48 members of the provincial legislature having that opportunity, given the results of the vote in the legislature and the results of the referendum, we have no right to oppose a constitutional amendment in this regard.
Having said that, I know that my folks at home in Mississauga are a little frightened of this. They are a little concerned that this is the thin edge of the wedge. That catholic education in the province of Ontario could be in jeopardy. I want you to know that I do not believe that. Our separate school system, a system which I went through—I went to our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School and to St. Jerome, a boarding school in Kitchener with the Resurrectionist Fathers—has tremendous roots in our province.
We now have full funding of both the public and the separate school system. I believe we are secure in the catholic education system which exists in the province of Ontario. We should not be worried that a precedent would destroy that. We should support our brothers and sisters, our friends, our legislative brothers and sisters in Newfoundland and Labrador. We should adopt this very historic amendment to our constitution.