Mr. Speaker, I do not want to belabour the point. However, since there has been a response to my comments I would like to reinforce some of them and perhaps just point out to the member from Calgary Centre that unlike him I am not a former anything.
Standing Order 73 is very clear. It is unlimited. It says "any government bill". I trust that Parliament knew what it was doing when it adopted Standing Order 73. It does not suggest any limitations to the principle, the scope of the bill. It makes no such references. Those are ways in which we have interpreted it in some of our debate on how Standing Order 73 might apply. But the standing order itself simply says "any government bill may be referred before second reading".