Mr. Speaker, I am perplexed that when an issue is before Parliament that is composed of members elected from across the country and who are given a mandate to debate an issue, all of a sudden the Reform will surrender that responsibility to another election process, a referendum.
We have been given the mandate to debate. I recall three kinds of politics articulated by Robert Bellah in his book “Habits of the Heart”. He speaks about the politics of the community when there is a consensus. That will be difficult to find in this Chamber. Then there is the second kind of politics, the politics of interest, that by definition there has to be competing and sometimes conflicting interests. But then we, in Parliament, must govern. We in Parliament must make a decision and not relinquish that again to yet another process that will be costly and time consuming.
I appeal to the Reform Party to make its decision known and to give its votes, but let the politics of the nation prevail and that of the majority. If you live in a democracy, when the majority of this Chamber so wills, let it be done and not surrender to yet another election process.