Mr. Speaker, the name of my riding is quite long, but it truly represents the many sub-regions I have the honour to represent here, in Ottawa, since 1993.
I have 40 minutes to speak on this issue pursuant to parliamentary procedure, but since it is Friday afternoon, I know that many of my hon. colleagues are looking forward to heading back to their ridings.
I must point out that, even if parliament is not sitting next week, unlike what many people might suggest, members of parliament will not be on holiday. We will be in recess. I want to make a non-partisan comment. I believe that, next week, none of my 301 colleagues in this House will be on holiday. We all have work waiting for us at our riding offices, people to meet and companies to visit.
Unfortunately, some reporters are suggesting that members of parliament will take some time off. The people close to members of parliament know that, yes, we do take some time off sometimes, because we are human after all. But next week, from May 17 to 24, the 301 members of parliament will not be on holiday. We will be in recess and working in our respective ridings. I wanted to make this non-partisan comment because of the great respect I have for the House of Commons as a parliamentary institution.
The rules of procedure allow me to speak for 40 minutes, but I will not use all the time I am allowed, especially since, as my Reform colleague rightly pointed out earlier, Bill S-23 is mostly a technical bill aimed at implementing two international conventions. One can hardly be against this type of bill.
However, like the Reform member, I too want to deplore the fact that the government has chosen, once again, to let this bill be brought in through the other house, the name of which I cannot mention. Members know that the Senate cannot be mentioned by name in the House, and that is why I must refer to it as the other house.
The government has 155 elected members, which is a majority. Since it was elected to govern, it could very well have introduced this bill through the usual channel. What is disturbing to opposition members is that, if one reads Hansard from the years 1984 to 1993, it shows that the Liberals criticized the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney for using such a procedure. Now that they are in office, they are doing exactly the same thing.
That is why the members of the Bloc Quebecois had the opportunity to say during the campaigns leading to the 1993 and the June 2, 1997 elections—and we will have the opportunity to say it again during the next election campaign—that Liberals and Conservatives are all the same. When they sit in opposition, they criticize the government, and when they take office, they act in the exact same way as the government they criticized.
It is disturbing to see that the government has chosen to introduce this bill in a house made up of non-elected members.
I want to underline the terrific work being done by my hon. colleague from Regina—Qu'Appelle and by the Liberal member from Sarnia—Lambton, who are campaigning to have the Senate abolished. Through their work, they want to ensure that the decisions are taken by democratically elected parliamentarians.
As far as we MPs are concerned, the people can replace us every four or five years. We are not appointed for partisan or political reasons or because we are government cronies.
We often hear about former ministers in the National Assembly who were appointed to the Senate by the current Prime Minister and who are receiving their pension from the National Assembly.
We could also mention Ross Fitzpatrick, the Liberal bagman from western Canada, who was appointed to the Senate by the current Prime Minister and who sits on the board of directors of Canadian Airlines and is lobbying for this company. We could come up with many more names like these.
We could talk about people who were appointed under the Mulroney government, like Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, the chief Conservative organizer in Quebec during the 1988 election campaign, who was appointed to the Senate at age 39.
My point here is simply to raise public awareness and make you realize, Mr. Speaker, as I am sure you are by now, given the way you seem to be hanging on to my every word, that we will be asking the government in the future to continue to use—