Madam Speaker, I thank the member for bringing forward the motion. It is something that I certainly will be supporting. I know that the member brought forward the motion on a non-partisan basis; however, there must be some alternatives that the member is considering without committing to any particular alternative.
Perhaps he could outline some of the ideas that perhaps the justice committee could consider. There are various alternatives, including a review of Supreme Court of Canada candidates by an independent committee, elections and terms. With past experience as a member of a cabinet in a provincial government, I know that whenever those ideas have been raised in the past, the bar associations and the law societies immediately attacked any suggestion of change as being somehow an interference with the independence of the judiciary.
Unfortunately I think that this is a little shortsighted given the changes that have happened in the legal landscape with the changes to the charter and indeed in the area of federalism. I know that my colleague sitting as a member for the Bloc would be very concerned about who is judging the powers of the federal government vis-à-vis the province. I think that if we had a system that in fact addressed those kinds of concerns and was truly impartial, perhaps we could make this Confederation work a little better.