Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's comments with great interest. She made some valid points.
There is one I would like her to address. Many people consider and certainly many have petitioned the House and written letters to all of us that in many ways marriage is the initial foundation for families. Empirically the government's own report, the longitudinal study on children and family, showed that children do best when they are raised in a marriage between a man and a woman.
It is interesting that this bill does include a definition of marriage at the front end. Unfortunately because of where it is placed, according to expert legal opinion, it will not have any force or effect. Therefore the official opposition, the Canadian Alliance party, brought in a number of amendments to enact the definition of marriage for each of the particular acts referred to in the bill.
Parliament would be giving a clear indication of its intention to the courts and to the public at large. It would change this bill from being mute or saying nothing on the definition of marriage to the courts when the challenges come to redefine marriage. In fact there are some cases in the court system already that will be before the supreme court before long. By putting the definition of marriage right into the statutes, which is what we wanted, we would actually be sending a clear message that we have a positive position on what the proven best foundation for family is, and that is marriage.
I would ask the hon. member that if it is good enough to put in the preamble, why is it not good enough to put in the statutes?