Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the speech made by the hon. member and, indeed, it is very surprising to find ourselves in the current situation. The government is not at the beginning of a mandate. Last fall, it changed leader, but it had known about this change for a year.
These people were supposed to be ready to govern and to propose new ideas and approaches. Now, we are caught in a bind. We feel that we are being pressured by the government to pass these bills. Last fall, this legislation was not that urgent, since the House recessed. Now, we are back and we realize that the government wants to reintroduce the same bills. In some cases, this is acceptable, but in other cases it is unacceptable.
I would like to put a question to the hon. member who tabled an amendment to the amendment to Bill C-49, which seeks to move up the effective date of the representation order of 2003.
Does this not defeat, to some extent, the purpose of the Canada Elections Act, which should be implemented as objectively as possible and which provides for a one year delay between the time when commissions make a decision on the effective date of the electoral map and the time when an election can be called?
The government introduced a very partisan bill to please the new Prime Minister and allow him to call an election in April 2004 when normally an election should not be called before the fall of 2004. This means that the election will take place six months earlier than it should.
Is this not in fact unacceptable? Would it not be best to not debate the bill introduced by the government in the House and implement the elections act as initially planned?