Mr. Speaker, as did a number of others, I listened with great interest as I always do to my colleague from Wild Rose. I would add to his comments that despite his challenge, I did not see any Liberals on the other side rising to defend what we would consider to be the indefensible, or try to defend the indefensible, when it comes to the completely undemocratic actions of the government.
I recently had the opportunity as House leader for the official opposition to write a couple of newspaper columns that were published, in which I declared that I believe that this is the most undemocratic Parliament I have seen in my lifetime and maybe in the history of Parliament itself.
My colleague cited a number of motions that were passed. The reason they were passed is that we are in a minority Parliament. It is not easy to get agreement among the three opposition parties in order to pass something. To get the agreement of the Conservatives, the separatists and the socialists is quite an accomplishment on any given day.
As the member indicated, with our opposition days last winter and early spring we passed a number of motions in the House that we felt were in the best interests of Canadians. They were supported sufficiently, in some cases by the Liberals themselves, to pass in this chamber and they should have been acted upon.
Instead, the government creates this illusion of democracy. As the member indicated at the closing of his remarks, the Liberals have replicated this fall what they did in the spring out of fear that the opposition may use an opposition day to bring forward a motion of non-confidence in the government which, if passed, would cause the government to fall. Out of fear of that the Liberals have postponed all of the opposition days. Normally we get roughly one opposition day every seven to nine days.
The Liberals postponed all of the opposition days until mid-November or later knowing two things. One is who wants an election on Boxing Day? That is what would happen if the government fell after the middle of November. Obviously that is a serious consideration for any party in defeating the government, even though we inherently believe, and have steadfastly believed since late last winter, that the government is corrupt and should be removed from office. We have never deviated from that.
The other reason is what my colleague from Wild Rose alluded to which is if the Liberals can put off the opposition days, they will not potentially be embarrassed, the way they should be embarrassed right now. Opposition days resulted in the passage of some really good motions, which the member listed, which should have been democratically acted upon by the government because the majority of the elected representatives in the House of Commons voted for them. It should be incumbent upon the government to enact those motions, but it is ignoring them.
If the Liberals can push that back until the winter, obviously with an election coming in the spring at the latest, they will not have to act on those. Even if we bring forward more good motions that we believe are in the best interests of Canadians, even if the majority of members crossing partisan boundaries support those motions, the government will not act upon them.
I wonder what my colleague has to say about a government in a minority situation that will use every possible parliamentary procedural tool at its disposal, and actually brag about it, to avoid the challenge of confidence of the chamber. Our parliamentary system is based upon the premise that on any given day the Prime Minister must be able to demonstrate to Canadians that he has the confidence of this place. That is what it is based upon. The Liberal government, more than any in the past, is avoiding that responsibility to prove to Canadians that it has the confidence not just of its own backbench, not just of its own cabinet, but that it has the confidence of the majority of members in this place.