Mr. Speaker, in congratulating my colleague from Churchill, I wanted to advance an idea. Wrapped up in all of this debate about the election of the committee chairs is at the heart of it the democratic deficit which a lot of members have talked about this afternoon.
Frankly we make it far too easy for the media to cover politics in a very partisan fashion. There is the high angle shot which highlights, maybe even exaggerates, the neutral zone between the government side and the opposition side. Somehow the average Canadian thinks that is what goes on here: partisan shots across the bow during question period; who has the great retort and who is going to make the national news.
I would like my colleague's comment on this. I believe that if we had committees that were more open, more accountable and which did more different things, the media would be forced to cover those committees in a way that they are not being covered now. It just might help to give democracy a better name. Then more Canadians would say that it was more than just a bunch of people hurling insults back and forth at one another, acting like kids in kindergarten.
Would my colleague agree that a little more autonomy at committees would make it a whole lot more interesting for parliamentarians and for Canadians in general?