Mr. Speaker, I have listened carefully to this debate, which is an important debate from the standpoint of democratic reform, something the House should always look at.
The last speaker referred to respecting the wishes of the constituents. Today people often look at the plurality of individual members of Parliament. It is interesting to note that less than 25% of the members elected to this place actually receive more than 50% of the vote. That brings into question whether a member who is elected and receives less than 50% of the vote actually reflects the will of his or her constituents, in that simply because of the numbers in the election the member did not have a plurality.
The other thing I noticed in the debate was that there seemed to be a total discounting of the value of a member of Parliament. About two-thirds of my work has to do with the constituency and helping the people in my riding with their needs as they relate to areas of responsibility of the Government of Canada. Under this bill, if a member sat as an independent for 30 days and then a byelection was called, technically, a riding would have no active representation for a fairly long time. I am not sure whether or not the constituents of a riding association should be asked to be without that active representation which is so important.
In Alberta elections were held to nominate senators, which cost a couple of million dollars. Last May, in the case involving a person in the Conservative Party who crossed the floor to the Liberals, under this bill there would not have been any change in the vote.