I will be voting in favour of the bill, let me tell the member that.
The minister responded by putting in the bill the definition of marriage, which to me was acceptable. I have shared that information with my constituents at the Mississauga Gospel Temple and to everyone else who has written with concerns.
What I found interesting was that the definition, which clearly is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, has caused some concern in the gay community. They have called and said that somehow we have gutted the bill.
I have a message regarding that. If they are saying that and they are partners in gay or lesbian relationships, then what they are really telling me is that they want, perhaps through a hidden agenda, to move toward gay and lesbian marriages being defined in the same way as heterosexual marriages. I do not support that.
I have said that before. Members opposite want to bring up some comments I made in the provincial legislature as an MPP. I am quite prepared to defend them because that bill did not clearly define marriage as the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.
While I may be prepared to draw my line in the sand which says that marriage is the union of a man a woman to the exclusion of all others, I have introduced a private member's bill which would amend the Marriage Act and amend the Interpretation Act to lay that out clearly.
I am not doing that to be mean-spirited to the gay and lesbian community. I believe they are entitled to the rights outlined in Bill C-23 and to the obligations outlined in Bill C-23.
I have said this before. I do not consider it to be homophobic. I just understand, have been raised to believe, and my constituents in the majority believe, that marriage by definition is between a man and a woman. That is based very much on procreation, on children and on families. I understand that to be the case.
Having said that, if two same sex people get together in a union, draw up a contract, do whatever they want and live their lives loving one another, I can assure you that does not jeopardize my marriage of 31 years. I am the only one who does that, and I do that on a regular basis, as my wife would say.
The fact that two women love one another, are in a relationship and live together has no impact on my relationship with my wife, nor should it for anyone. The reality is that we take the issue and decide what kind of society we want.
Let me use an example. Suppose there were two people working on the assembly line at General Motors. One of them was heterosexual with a wife at home. The other was gay with a partner at home. Are we prepared as a society to say that the heterosexual person should receive full access to General Motors' company benefits, pension survivor benefits and dental plan for his partner at home, but that the person making the same dollar, working the same hours and taking the same risks should not have access to those same benefits? Is that the kind of society we want? I do not think so.
The Canadian people understand the differences between the former Reform Party, or the C-C-R-A-P, or the UA, or the CA, or whatever it is, and the government. I think it is wonderful that it is having a leadership debate. We will hear the vision for Canada and the world according to Stockwell Day and according to the present leader of that party. I cannot wait to hear the debate. We will hear “praise the Lord” all across this great land. They will be standing and saying that if people come to their bosom they will make those people more free and more democratic. It is nonsense. They can stump it and thump it any which way, but the vision in which Canadians believe is not one of the extreme right. It is not one of the extreme religious right. It is the belief that we all have the ability and the freedom to worship in whatever form we want or not to worship in whatever form we want.
Nobody can tell Canadians that they must believe in certain philosophies. That is absolute nonsense. The Canadian people are saying that we will not discriminate. It is as simple as that.
Where do we want to go? Do we want to take away a woman's right to choose what to do with her body? I think they do. I think that is part of their philosophy. That is not the vision of this party. Frankly, that is not the vision of the majority of Canadians.
Do we want to have boot camps? I know they believe in that. They believe in the fist. They believe that a block of wood on the rear end of a kid will cure him. That is their vision. That is not our vision and that is not the vision of most Canadians.
Fundamentally, they believe in discriminating for whatever reasons they choose. That is not our vision and that is not the vision of the vast majority of Canadians.