Mr. Speaker, when I go back to my riding on Fridays, by plane or by car, I think about what I will do during the weekend. I miss my family and my constituents, whom I am proud to represent. When I am feeling so-so—I do not want to use the word down—when I become bitter, I think about things such as those that the hon. member for Terrebonne—Blainville just mentioned.
We make speeches, we work, we have assistants and researchers who work hard to prepare speeches that are interesting, good, well researched and not just empty words. But unfortunately, these speeches are delivered in front of empty benches, in front of 177 empty benches or so. Right now, for example, there are two government members out of 177 who are listening to us. This gets to be discouraging. This is a depressing part of our job.
But we love our work and we try to do it as best we can. We are human beings with qualities and flaws. I think each one of us here will admit to not being perfect. We can all do better. But unfortunately, the reality is such that we experience situations such as the ones referred to by the hon. member for Terrebonne—Blainville, who was elected here on November 27, 2000.
I would like to tell her that if Canadians and Quebecers, to some extent, have lost confidence in politicians and in the parliamentary system as we know it today, it is perhaps because of situations such as these, because of speeches delivered in front of empty benches.
There are people who come to see us in the gallery. There are people up there. Are these people going to be favourably impressed after seeing 175 empty benches out of 177? Are those who are listening to us proud of this situation? These people will go back thinking that this is not a very good example of democracy at work. I appreciate the hon. member's comments.