Mr. Speaker, I want to make a brief comment because I know that many Canadians do watch the House. I want to defend members of Parliament who may be affronted by the member's comment about voting the way that somebody tells them.
As a member of the government party, I ran in the last election on a government platform which laid out the commitments that the Liberal Party was making to go into a new parliament.
I want constituents of my riding and of my colleagues' ridings to know that when we come to this place we will vote in favour of measures and bills which support a platform on which we ran. That is the mandate, that is the democracy and the accountability in this place.
My question for the member has to do with the issue of being an independent member and voting the will of the people, as the member would put it. I am afraid that the member is actually serious about this. The member continues to refer to New Zealand as a model. New Zealand may be able to do referendums but the population of New Zealand at some three million is the same as taking a referendum in the city of Toronto.
I would like to ask the member a very direct question. When one considers that in the last session of parliament, just half of the 35th Parliament, we had over 400 votes in this House, how is it that he expects to consult and get fair questions to all of the constituents, to get them back and to process them to find out how his constituents feel and still do it with the resources that are available? This is going to cost a phenomenal amount of money.
I would point out to the member that if he truly believes in referendums, then he should not be here because he only got 49 per cent of the vote. More than half of the people said no to that member.