Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with the arguments the hon. member has been making of late about the need for parliament to be able to give the government a more specific mandate in the context of an explicit motion and vote at some point in the future should perhaps the government come to the view that it wants to deploy ground troops, for instance. I would caution the hon. member not to hang his hat too firmly when it comes to this on the behaviour of the previous Conservative government.
If my memory serves me right, we were well into the gulf war before we had the kind of thing the member is calling for. A lot of procedures that have made it tough for the opposition in this parliament and the last parliament, including the procedure used by the government against the hon. member today, were procedures brought in by that government. In terms of procedural contempt for parliament, his party has few equals and I would caution against self-righteousness in the matter.