Mr. Speaker, the member for Lakeland put to rest some of the absurd comments from the Progressive Conservatives tonight. I am not sure whether they were trying to be progressive or conservative or just completely irrelevant which I think they have succeeded in.
I do find it interesting that there is one thing that was not covered by the member for Lakeland. Many members of the Tory caucus said that they did not know anything about the bill and it was a complete and absolute surprise.
Perhaps the member for Lakeland could describe what exactly they think their House leader was doing for the past three or four weeks and if he is not talking to his own caucus what exactly he thinks his role is. It seems to me, and I am just guessing, that there were discussions about it. The government House leader said members did not even have to go to a caucus meeting. They could pick up a newspaper a month ago and read that people were talking about it.
The Tories seemed to be completely and utterly surprised at this, that it came out of nowhere. It was just laid on the table and then the Canadian Alliance gave unanimous consent, just like the Tories said they did, “Just like us in the Tory party, they gave unanimous consent”. Whoops.
I do not mind someone giving unanimous consent because we knew this was being talked about. What I find remarkable is they gave unanimous consent to something they say they had no idea existed. They said, “We will give unanimous consent to something which we have not got a clue what we are talking about”. I give up.