Madam Speaker, I think what we have just seen is indicative of the extremely arrogant dictatorial style of this government in the fact that it refused a very reasonable request that we move on to Group No. 2 amendments.
Ironically, Group No. 2 consists of only one motion put forward by the hon. minister of heritage, the very minister who is putting forward this bill. We will quite likely never get to Group No. 2. The reality is that through the use of time allocation by this government we on this side of the House will never have the opportunity to actually debate the minister's amendment to her own bill. I think that would certainly indicate to the viewing public exactly where this government stands on the use of time allocation and how it pertains to democracy in our country.
As we have said already during the debate, this is the 49th time this government has elected to use time allocation. There were 45 times that avenue was used to shut down debate and 4 times for closure; 36 times in the 35th parliament and 13 already in less than two years in this, the 36th parliament. Shame on this government. The reality that it has elected to continuously and systemically shut down debate and limit democracy is quite appalling.
My hon. colleague from Fraser Valley was showing how some of the Liberal members, when they were on this side of the House during the reign of terror by the Tory government between 1984 and 1993, were always quick to jump to their feet whenever that government utilized time allocation or closure to ram legislation through this place. Yet these same members, many of whom are still here but who sit on the government side, are strangely mute when it comes to the use of time allocation.
There are examples of the flagrant abuse of power by this government other than the use of time allocation. Whipped votes come to mind when people think about how this government is abusing its power. We remember a year or two ago when we had the now famous flag debate where the Reform Party put forward a motion that a member should be able to have a small flag on his or her desk to denote their patriotism. It was voted down. There was a whipped vote and that motion was voted down.
We saw it with the hepatitis C issue where again the Reform Party was trying to get compensation for all hepatitis C victims. Again the government whip got all the backbenchers to fall into line and vote it down. Just last month the Reform Party put forward a supply motion concerning the child porn situation in British Columbia and how we wanted to use the notwithstanding clause to prevent those who would view child porn from possessing that type of despicable material. Again, a whipped vote and all of the Liberals fell into line and voted against that very important motion.
Tomorrow we will see the same type of thing take place when we have the Reform motion concerning the unfair tax policy and how it discriminates against single income families that elect to have one parent stay at home, work in the home and raise and guide their children.
What I am trying to point out is that unfortunately for Canada and the Canadian general public there are many examples of where this arrogant Liberal government is abusing the power it has been granted by the electorate. It is operating in a very dictatorial manner.
In that light I would like to quote from a publication called “Governing with Integrity”:
The most important asset of government is the confidence it enjoys of the citizens to whom it is accountable. There is evidence today of considerable dissatisfaction with government and a steady erosion of confidence in the people and institutions of the public sector.
This erosion of confidence seems to have many causes. Some have to do with the behaviour of certain elected politicians, others with an arrogant style of political leadership.
A Liberal government will take a series of initiatives to restore confidence in the institutions of government.
One of the steps cited on page 92 is that more free votes will be allowed in the House of Commons. What I am quoting from is what has become known as the infamous Liberal red book on the policies they ran under in the 1993 election. Unfortunately for Canada they were elected to their first majority government in October 1993.
In the short time I have remaining one thing I would like to briefly refer to is of real concern to me. One of the most disturbing trends we have seen lately is the drop in the electoral turnout at the ballot boxes.