Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I view that simply as a tactic to reduce my speaking time.
I said to many people on that occasion that our reason for voting was because we were going to spend a week on it. It was an important issue for thousands of Canadians. The Liberal government had the choice to decide whether we would use that time debating or whether we would use that time voting, because I believe it had advance notice that we would oppose that bill with every means possible. We did that because the government said “Closure. Time allocation. This is finished”. We had no choice but to spend that time voting because of the importance of the bill to members of our society.
I plead for better democracy. I plead for giving our members an opportunity to really be heard and not to be ignored. I insist that all of us in the House, elected by the people in our ridings, are here to do a job.
In conclusion, I would amend the motion that has been put by the hon. member. I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting the word “premature”.