Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member from the Progressive Conservative Party for his remarks and question.
It is a dangerous thing for those of us who are in leadership to be presenting ourselves as reform minded members of Parliament in public and raise the expectation level of Canadians that there are some of us who want to modernize and reform this institution if we are not willing at the end of the day to walk the talk.
Canadians are not ignorant. They are intelligent people who can see past phoniness. Indeed, if there are people among us who are aspiring to the highest positions of leadership in our nation, people who are hoping to some day become the Prime Minister of the nation, and if somehow they are raising expectations in public about reform of this place and are not prepared to deliver, then at the end of the day this will continue to create despair and lack of hope in our nation. It is simply not right. As members of Parliament we have an obligation to be prepared to put our words into action.