Mr. Speaker, my special thanks to the member for Macleod for introducing the bill on behalf of the party. He has been a long time member of our party who will be retiring. I thank him for his service to our party, to the country and for being such a great friend and colleague.
First, just to make it clear, the bill asks Parliament to do what has never been done before, and that is to legislate a legal definition of marriage in this country. The bill proposes that definition be a union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. The bill also encourages provinces to go ahead with the recognition of traditional or non-traditional relationships of civil unions.
The bill is clear. It recognizes that the provinces have the exclusive jurisdiction to create civil unions.