Madam Speaker, I have a couple of questions I would like to ask the hon. member. I consider him to be a very thoughtful member.
What this debate actually entails is to find out what the rules are for secession. One fact we do know is that the supreme court ruling will not tell us anything that we do not know already. At the end of the day there are no rules when countries split up either domestically or internationally. There are no 20 points which we can actually put down on a piece of paper and say that they are the rules if there is a yes vote in any referendum.
This kind of debate and this kind of question the government is posing to the supreme court essentially privatizes the political leadership of government.
I would like to ask the member again, because I understand him to be a reasonable and thoughtful individual, about whether he agrees with the ads which the Reform Party utilized in the last election and should they ever be used again.
The second question I want to ask the member is whether he will distance himself away from Ezra Levant's comments in terms of what he stated in the Calgary Sun on October 30, 1995, on the eve before the country could have actually broken up. Mr. Levant makes comments such as “Say no to other special interest groups. Is it any wonder that Canada has so many special interest groups? After all, they see Quebec's payoff for being a constant nag. If we kicked out Quebec, we might then have the fortitude to tackle Canada's other ethnic separatists, natives”.
This kind of extremism is not what actually adds to the political process. I ask the member if he will distance himself away from these comments. Also, if he were the leader of his party, would this person be under his employ?