Mr. Speaker, I concur with my colleague from Saint John and my entire caucus. We support you.
We recognize that this debate came about primarily because of the frustration that the Bloc was experiencing with regard to Bill C-20. None of us disagree with the Bloc's sensitivity to this issue. That was exhibited through debate with the frustration and so on. It has led to a high level of frustration. I think the motion was launched on the basis of frustration, nothing more nothing less.
Mr. Speaker, it is the same frustration we all feel and which I know you felt when you were sitting here as a backbench member of parliament. I have taken the opportunity today to look at your career as a member of parliament. You are like any of us here. You earned your way to stand in this place and represent your constituents. I think you have done an extremely good job.
I was with you in a previous parliament, Mr. Speaker. I guess we share a commonality. We know what it is like to be a backbencher on the government side. My experience is it was probably more frustrating to be a backbencher on the government side than it is on the opposition side. This job by definition is frustrating regardless of what side we sit on.
There is a commonality between yourself and myself as members of parliament. You earned your way here. You sat out a term in that you were defeated in a general election in 1984 when your party was not very popular. I would not consider that a personal defeat but you had the fortitude to stand up and run for office again and you came back to this place. I did the same thing in 1993. I experienced personal defeat and came back to the House in 1997. Few members have that opportunity. Most of us will not go through that fight to earn our place, our right to stand in this place and defend our constituents, defend the things we believe in.
For the most part I think we do it fairly well. As members have stated here earlier in the day, it is one of the few countries in the world with a true democracy. We could almost identify with our 10 fingers, on two hands, the true democracies in this world. The number does not extend much beyond a couple of handfuls. It is a very small number of countries. Every night we see in the newscasts countries that have civil unrest, where decisions are made at the point of a gun and where there is no true democracy.
This is a place we can be proud of. People back home, my wife, my family, my own flesh and blood sometimes get a little discouraged by what they see happening in this place. It goes back, Mr. Speaker, to how you got here, how I got here and how everyone else got here.
It is a tough and brutal business. The weapons we use are merely words. From time to time we do get exercised. I have become exercised, because we are here fighting for what we believe in.
Members disagree in the House. You, Mr. Speaker, have seen it time and time again. We will fire away at a cabinet minister, or vice versa, and when it is all over we will walk outside, shake hands or pat each other on the back and go back at it the next day because we honour that tradition. We honour the right to do that in this place.
Mr. Speaker, you are merely the referee. You have the toughest job. Being prime minister is not easy. Being the leader of the opposition or the fourth or fifth party is not an easy job, but it is easier than your job. We elect you to referee this place and we expect you to be perfect. We expect you to rule every time according to the way we see things. We always want to be right, but we very seldom are, and you do the best job as a mere mortal to referee this very intense setting. On a day to day basis you do it as good as anyone ever has, including Speaker Fraser, for whom you have a great deal of respect, and a Speaker I served under.
You were elected by us. I was elected by the people back home to stand in this place to state how I see it. They gave me the right and the privilege to do that. We gave you the privilege to referee this very intense forum.
You have heard comments today that, as a mere mortal, I do not know if I could take them. I could not.