Mr. Speaker, my point of order has to do with question period.
As some members know, like some other members around here I am closing in on 20 years in this place and I have to say that was one of the worst question periods I have ever experienced. I think we all have some thinking to do about what is happening in question period and what happened to it in the extreme today.
I do not think we can continue in a situation where there is this sort of collective bellowing and clapping that goes on after every exchange. This is not a soccer game here for God's sake.
I can be as partisan as the next person. I like a good heckle and a good exchange, but everything that has been happening throughout this fall is going beyond the beyond.
I must confess a collective self-interest in the matter. It is not just a question of decorum for us, it also a question that the smaller parties get pushed off at the end of question period when this happens. The people who are generally at fault in this, who have the power collectively in their numbers to bring the House to a standstill, are not the people who suffer. Either the government or the Bloc or the Reform Party each take its turn at this and who suffers? Who gets pushed off at the end of question period? It is not the people who have the power to create this kind of situation.
I am concerned about it from the point of view of the NDP and the Conservatives, but it is not just that. It is also the people on the end of the list for the Reform Party, on the end of the list for the Bloc and the government backbenchers who were on the list. I do not think we can tolerate this situation any longer.
Mr. Speaker, I plead with you to rethink your own tactics in this regard. I know that you do not want to say “order”, but I am very concerned that the tactic which you employ of simply standing until the House reconvenes, until it quiets down by itself, is not working. As much as I know your reasons, which I think are noble, for not wanting to say “order”, there are certainly times in this place for the Speaker to intervene and say “order”, as speakers do with gavels or orally in parliaments all around the world. There is a time and a place for this. I would urge you to rethink your strategy in this regard because it is visibly, obviously, clearly not working.
Today was a perfect example of that. There were moments when I felt that an intervention by the Chair might have brought order or might simply have moved us on. If you feel one party or another is contributing negatively to decorum, move on to the next party. Do as speakers in the past have done and use the discretion of the Chair to punish people who are not contributing to decorum.
It may be that people who are members of the parties which are acting up will be punished for the sins of their colleagues, but collectively they will have a discussion about it after the fact and maybe better behaviour will come of it.
When people watch this on television they cannot tell who is yelling. All they see is you, Mr. Speaker, so they think we are all yelling. We are not all yelling. Some of us are sitting here hoping the place will get quiet so we can get on with our questions. It does not help the public perception of the House of Commons to have you standing there for literally five minutes at a time sometimes, as was the case today, while there is this terrible background noise. It cannot be good for parliament in terms of its perception and it certainly is not good for parliament in terms of its everyday practice.