Madam Speaker, the two words in a democracy that constituents hate to hear most are the ones I will use. It depends. If I look at the sweep of private members' bills and motions that I have read and frankly the ones I have drafted, they are largely non-partisan bills that affect people locally. I keep raising the leaky condo issue. It is not a partisan issue. One cannot take a clear position and say that it is driven by ideological concern. Local issues that are an urgent need can be brought forward.
My second private member's motion that was drawn was supposed to be debated on June 22. It has been moved back to the fall. It would establish a law that would make it impermissible for the Prime Minister to appoint senators for provinces that have Senate election laws.
It is not time sensitive in the relative context like the droughts in Alberta or the water issue in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. If it were established by the committee after this motion is passed and the member for Battlefords—Lloydminster asked me if we could swap slots, that would be an appropriate consideration the committee should take into account.
I caution that private members' bills and motions should have a local emphasis. They should be local concerns. Some of the issues I have raised in the private members' bills I have drafted, including the one that was drawn, are not issues of concern to Mississauga.
Private members' bills are drawn and deemed votable. What frustrates a lot of us in the opposition, and I know it frustrates the hon. member as well, is that some private members' bills become votable. The member for Notre-Dame-de- Grâce—Lachine had a private member's bill to create a parliamentary poet laureate. It was drawn and deemed votable. Meanwhile, 10,000 of my constituents are being taxed on repairs to their homes that are no fault of their own.
The member for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey had a private member's bill in the last parliament in which he asked the House to consider the creation and the designation of a national horse. That was deemed votable. Meanwhile, private members' bills and motions to have an elected Senate or to give GST relief to leaky condo owners were deemed non-votable.
The examples are endless. There is another one from the Bloc Quebecois that asked the House of Commons to call upon the Governor General to ask London to give an official apology to Acadians from 250 years ago. I as a member of parliament from British Columbia, and there is not an Acadian within an eight hour flight of where I live, was in the House speaking to that. If that is an issue of concern for that member, I have to respect that. It has to be debated and brought forward.
In British Columbia we are in a particular predicament. We have six senators and a vacancy. Two other senators have said they want to stand for election. We have only six senators for our province.
In my constituency I represent 135,000 people. It is the third largest constituency in the country. The province of Prince Edward Island has eight representatives for the one, myself, in British Columbia. Because of that individual members of parliament like myself should have the authority to bring forward bills of local interest and get them on the national stage because sometimes the government will not.