All of us would agree that in the last two days our question periods have not been the best that we have had in the last short while. It seems like we are all getting in a circle and we are pointing fingers. The fact of the matter is that we should just turn our fingers around and point them at ourselves.
As the Speaker I could stand up and yell for order until I am blue in the face but I am not going to do that. I am not going to try to outshout this House of Commons. I will not do it.
We have heard interventions from every party in here. We all agree that if we are going to get more questions in and hopefully more answers in, we are going to have to co-operate. I would remind you that in the last parliament when it came to question period I was forever asking you to please shorten the questions and the answers so we could get more questions in.
The House decided collectively to do something for itself. The party leaders came to me saying “We need certain questions; they mentioned a number”. I said “That is easy. We have 45 minutes and there are 60 seconds in each minute. If you multiply the two and divide by the number of questions you want to ask, you end up with 35 seconds for the question and 35 seconds for the answer”.
Everything went well. Why? Because it came from the House. It came from us collectively that we could make this House function.
When there is a question posed, what possible good can it do to heckle so we cannot even hear the question? If a person asks a question, it is surely because that person wants to hear an answer. I cannot control the quality of the question nor the answer but I can now control, thanks to you because you agree, the length of the questions.
Instead of pointing our fingers at one another, let us look at ourselves. I am not here to lecture you. God knows, I have sat on those benches and I know what it is like in question period. I know what you are trying to do. It is not as if I arrived here a couple of weeks ago.
Having said that, surely we can come to some kind of an agreement that we will be able to conduct ourselves the way we want to conduct ourselves so that the people who are asking the questions will get the answers and those who are giving answers will be heard on the other side.
You want me perhaps to take punitive measures. There are suggestions. I do not take offence when a member parliament stands and says that maybe I should try this or maybe I should try that. That is okay. It is advice. I will listen to advice. If you get a little bit frustrated, I sit in this chair day after day and hear our own members not give each other the chance to speak or be heard on the other side.
If I have been a little too lenient, perhaps I should tighten it up to the point where at least we can function a little bit better. But as your Speaker, I do not want to be be some kind of dictator or martinet. I do not want to do that. I want all of us, the 301 of us, to be able to do our work in such a fashion that we will be proud of what we do in here.
I ask all of you to review what has been said by your peers. This is not somebody from outside; this is you who have spoken in here today. Look at Hansard and look at your own conduct, and me too. Let us see if tomorrow we can do a little bit better.
I have heard the points you brought up and I am going to take them to heart. But unless and until this House collectively wants to discipline itself, I suggest that your Speaker can stand here and shout all through question period and it will not make one iota of difference until we want to make this House the place that it should be. As the hon. member from Winnipeg said, we owe each other that respect.
Once again, I ask you to respect each other as parliamentarians. Tomorrow shall we see if we can have a better day for ourselves.
