Mr. Speaker, the member is trying to use a linguistic argument to win a political point. First, I must say that he is completely distorting the motion already passed by this House, as all parliamentarians are aware, and, second, a few days later, he is using this point in an attempt to legitimize something completely different.
Neither the government House leader nor anyone else here has invented the fact that section 1 of our constitution says that we are guided by the parliamentary practices of the United Kingdom. I was certainly not around when that was written.
It is the same in the Quebec National Assembly and everywhere else in Canada.
The member opposite is perfectly aware of this. If he did not know any better, it would perhaps be half excusable. But that is not the case. The member is perfectly aware of this.
And his leader today, who dares to grumble right now, was one of our country's premiers. It is a disgrace.
The articles of our present rules, the Parliament of Canada Act, all refer to the fact that we are guided by the principle of the United Kingdom parliament.
Have we rejected our style of parliament? Are we going to reject the fact that we live in a system known as responsible government? What kind of nonsense is that?
They are doing this to make a cheap political point, to try to monopolize a rule that does not even exist.
What upsets me the most is that the hon. member is using the language of my ancestors, of my children and of my grandchildren to do so. This is the shameful part. He should rise and offer his apologies to this hon. House for daring to perpetrate such an act today. The member opposite knows full well he is in the wrong. He knows what he has just said is not right. But it has been done.
I know that the Speaker of the House knows these rules much better than I do. And I know as well that he will recognize that we are guided everywhere, unless indicated elsewhere in the Standing Orders, by the practices of the United Kingdom.
The member opposite claimed that I drew on Erskine May. Even if that were true, and it is not, Erskine May's is one of our procedural manuals on the table before me in this hon. House, quoted by one and all, including the person today in the Chair. The member opposite knows better than what he is saying, and I know that he will fail to influence the Chair, which will act with its usual wisdom.