I appreciate the hon. members' comments. However what I said on that occasion was:
The Chair is very reluctant to do this--
That was to rule this motion inadmissible. I went on to say:
--because in the Chair's view the opposition has the right to move whatever motion it chooses to on an opposition day. As has been pointed out in argument, to allow the government to argue this would mean that any time there was an awkward opposition motion that the government chose not to want to debate, it could bring in a committee report, then move concurrence and thereby preclude the debate from taking place.
It seems to me that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, as they say. Were the Chair to find that the opposition could move motions on an opposition day that precluded the government from moving bills in the House, for example, by moving something about the age of consent and then arguing that the government could not bring in a bill to change the age of consent because the matter had been decided by the adoption of some motion in the House or by debate on such a motion, it seems to me it would be quite contrary to the way this place has worked ever since opposition days were instituted as part of the supply process many years ago, before the time of any of us in the House, with the possible exception of the hon. member for Davenport who may have been here before that change was made.
What the hon. member for Wetaskiwin is really inviting the Chair to do is say that because the opposition has moved this motion and we have had a debate on this motion, the government cannot do anything else on this subject matter.
While there may be differing views on whether it is a good idea or not, the Chair is in the position of having to apply the rules fairly. It seems to me, as I say, that if the government cannot block the opposition from moving certain motions, the opposition, by moving those motions, cannot block the government from moving others or dealing with legislation in the House.
While the rule of anticipation is always an argument that members like to raise, I stress the citation that I quoted on October 31 indicating this rule had not been determined as a major part of Canadian parliamentary practice at any time.
Accordingly, I am not disposed to allow the argument to be advanced today to prevent the motion before us from being debated at this time.