Mr. Speaker, it is great to hear a Liberal member rise and talk about improving the democracy of committees because it is so unusual. Parliament is not the government. Parliament is where the government comes to get permission to tax and spend the people's money and have its legislation passed. However there is this long tradition of the independence of Parliament itself and I was pleased to hear the member talk about that.
Perhaps she could tell the House the precedent that was set at environment committee where indeed the chair of that committee that she sits on was elected by secret ballot and the skies did not part and we did not have an earthquake. We were demonstrating that committees can be independent and we can elect our officers by secret ballot. It did happen in our committee. Maybe she could talk about that experience.